James Wan is out doing the rounds for this weekend’s “The Conjuring 2,” but as you might expect, part of every interview is turning into a brief question and answer session about “Aquaman.” And while most of Wan’s responses have been both vague and routine, in chatting with Uproxx, he reveals that when he was first approached by Warner Bros., he was given an option of which superhero movie he wanted to direct.
“They asked me which of the two characters I’d be interested in and it was between The Flash and Aquaman,” the director revealed, adding that what ultimately had him choose the latter was the chance to work with a character that doesn’t have too much fanboy baggage attached to it.
“…the thing that ultimately pushed me more towards Aquaman is I love the possibility of creating a whole new world. I’ve always wanted to do a world creation story and visually create this amazing, incredible, magical kingdom. And also, I love the fact that Aquaman is an underdog character. I love the fact that people like to make fun of him. [Laughs.] I feel the bar is a lot lower and I can have fun with him!” Wan said. “What it allows me to do: I think people are a lot less precious with him than, let’s say, you were doing a Spider-Man or a Batman or whatever.”
It seems Wan is excited to have a bit more room to have fun, and that will perhaps carry over to the the film’s villain, though he’s staying mum on who it might be at the moment. “I gotta say, one thing I love about the Aquaman world is all the really different, really interesting characters. They are interesting characters, including the villains – I’m not going to tell you which villains I’m going to play with! [laughs] But they’re super cool. They’re very larger than life, but they’re unique,” he told CinemaBlend.
All that said, Wan is aware of how heightened expectations can lead to crushing disappointment, something he chalks up to the reception of “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice” in a recent interview with Bad Taste (see below). Though, he can’t really say it was a bad movie now, can he?
“Aquaman” opens on July 27, 2018.