Yesterday brought great news for Aquaman: James Wan, the director of The Conjuring, the first two Insidious movies and Furious 7, will helm the King of Atlantis' solo movie. Wan already has a lot on his plate with the Conjuring sequel and the live-action adaptation of the Robotech anime, but Aquaman will likely take priority. In fact, it's reported that this DC superhero will force the filmmaker to set Robotech off to the side for the time being.
When The Hollywood Reporter revealed Wan's involvement with Aquaman, the trade publication also noted that he likely won't be able to tackle Robotech until 2016. He's already scheduled to start production on The Conjuring 2: The Endfield Experiment for New Line this fall, and Aquaman has become a priority for Warner Bros. and is farther along in development than Robotech. Though this schedule isn't set in stone, that's what it looks like so far.
Sony wants Robotech to be its version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The property, which includes strings of anime, comics, games, movies and toys, shows what happens after Earthlings discover the remains of an alien spaceship in the South Pacific and use its technology to create shape-shifting battle suits to fight an invading alien species. Wan's film is said to tell of two pilots, who are rebellious, untested and, naturally, humanity's last hope.
While this is an exciting opportunity for Sony, the WB is moving full speed ahead on developing its DC cinematic universe. Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad are gearing up for 2016 premieres, and the studio is busy honing their solo outings for Wonder Woman and Aquaman. Jason Momoa has been cast as the trident-wielding Justice League-r and will make his first appearance in BvS alongside Henry Cavill's Superman, Ben Affleck's Batman, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman and, reportedly, Ray Fisher's Cyborg.
It's funny that the studio already has the main behind-the-scenes players filled out for Aquaman and not The Flash. We haven't heard much of anything about the scarlet speedster's solo film, and it's scheduled to debut in theaters about four months before Aquaman. All we've heard so far is that Ezra Miller of The Perks of Being a Wallflower will play the character on the big screen and Phil Lord and Chris Miller were hired to write a story treatment. Meanwhile, we've already received our first look at Momoa as Aquaman, and he's just as dark and brooding as one might expect from this dark and gritty universe.
As of now, Robotech doesn't have an official release date, but The Conjuring 2 is scheduled to open on June 10, 2016, while Aquaman will drop on July 27, 2018.
