The last three DC movies to be released in theaters — Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and The Flash — have underperformed at the box office. Can Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (or Blue Beetle) snap the streak of flops?
James Wan’s sequel to 2018’s enjoyably goofy Aquaman is finally coming out this December following multiple delays and three rounds of reshoots, which the Hollywood Reporter described as an “unprecedented number, even for a movie of this scale.” An insider told the publication that “story clarity” has been an ongoing concern — as well as the number of Batmans (Batmen?).
Michael Keaton was originally going to be in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, but that was when the superhero film was going to come out in March 2023, before his return in June’s The Flash. So, 1989’s Batman was replaced with 2016’s Batman, Ben Affleck, who “joined a round of reshoots as Bruce Wayne, to replace a scene Keaton shot. But then the movie was moved again, this time to after The Flash, putting Affleck’s appearance in question.”
The latest cut of the film features neither version of the Dark Knight, according to sources, as new DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran do not want to promise a movie universe that will not come to fruition nor tie it down to past failures. “It was pretty chaotic,” said one source.
There’s a simple solution to DC’s woes: Jack Black should play Batman. Also, let James Wan do whatever the heck he wants. He deserves it for the octopus drummer alone.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom allegedly comes out on December 20th.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)