Although 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League showed a different version of how Arthur Curry and his fellow superheroes defeated Steppenwolf, it’s been over three years since we last hung out with Jason Momoa’s character in Aquaman, his most recent chronological appearance in the DC Extended Universe timeline. That will finally change at the end of the year with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and the sequel just crossed a major milestone. Director James Wan has revealed that after nearly seven full months of rolling cameras, Aquaman 2 is done filming!
The filmmaker shared the big news with a picture of himself, Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson, who’s back as Orm/Ocean Master for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Take a look at these three men together on-location in Malibu, along with Wan’s accompanying caption:
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom began principal photography on June 28, 2021, and like James Wan noted in his Instagram post, 95% of the movie was shot in the United Kingdom. But that remaining 5% required the cast and crew to travel to other locations, and today saw the production’s final footage being captured in Malibu. While it’s a good bet there’s some time that’s been allotted for reshoots later this year, for the most part, the pieces of Lost Kingdom have been collected, which means now it’s time for Wan and his team assemble them into a complete picture during the postproduction phase. At least that process won’t be as wet as the shoot itself.
With a $1.148 billion global box office take, 2018’s Aquaman still ranks as the highest-grossing movie based on a DC Comics character, so naturally Warner Bros. wanted to keep this DCEU train going. By January 2019, it was officially announced that Aquaman 2 was in development, and James Wan revealed the official title on June 10, 2021, just a few weeks before filming started. David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick also returned to write the script.
Along with Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s lineup of familiar faces includes Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Dolph Lundgren, Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison and Randall Park. The newcomers include Vincent Regan taking over the role of Atlan from Graham McTavish, Jani Zhao as Stingray, Indya Moore as Karshon and Pilou Asbæk in a yet-to-be-revealed role. The Lost Kingdom will see Arthur Curry forging “an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally to protect Atlantis, and the world, from irreversible devastation.” The first movie’s mid-credits scene also established an alliance between Mateen’s Black Manta and Park’s Dr. Stephen Shin, so count on them to cause trouble in the sequel.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will make a splash in theaters on December 16, 2022. As always, our upcoming DC movies guide is available for those of you wondering what else is coming down the DCEU creative pipeline.
