Before James Wan signed on to direct Warner Bros.’ Aquaman movie, Jeff Nichols was in talks with the studio about helming the King of Atlantis’ solo debut, although ultimately he decided to pass on the opportunity. During an interview with ScreenCrush to promote his new film Midnight Special [read our review here], Nichols has explained why he turned the project down, stating that he didn’t feel he could work within the confines of the interconnected DC Extended Universe.
“With the DC universe, so many parts of it had been activated and so many decisions had already been made that it felt more and more – and Warner Bros. agreed – that it was me trying to jump on a moving train. That’s not so much what I’m good at. I’m more of a ground up kinda guy. It’s all a connected universe. And it should be. And I was an advocate of that. The decisions that Zack Snyder is going to make in Batman v. Superman, those all connect to things that are going to happen in Justice League and all that. And I was a huge comic book nerd, so I know all these characters and they all need to be beautifully webbed together. I was just far enough on the outside that I could develop things in a vacuum all day long but it wasn’t going to line up with everything they had planned.”
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our DC Extended Universe coverage here
Aquaman is set for release on July 27th 2018, but Jason Momoa will make his debut as the character this month in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, before commencing filming on the two-part Justice League next month.
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Originally published March 10, 2016. Updated November 29, 2022.
