DC's next big-screen adventure is almost here, but Aquaman 's director already has ideas about where to take the series. However, it's possible that those ideas won't actually include Aquaman. Director James Wan says that it would be fun to explore stories that don't necessarily focus on the Atlantian character and dove into the seven kingdoms of Atlantis. According to Wan...
There's definitely stories, even within the world we've created, that you can actually see other storylines [spinning off from] as well. There's the Aquaman story, but then there's the stories of the seven different kingdoms as well. I think those would be very fun to explore.
While Aquaman is only one corner of a larger universe based on DC Comics characters, it seems like James Wan could be potentially interested in creating a universe strictly within the world of Aquaman, that sees multiple stories about the different kingdoms that made up the original Atlantis.
We learned a few months ago that the tagline 'Unite the Seven" which was used on the earliest Aquaman marketing material, is actually a reference to the seven kingdoms. When Atlantis fell into the sea it became seven separate kingdoms. Bringing these disparate places together will be a major part of the story of Aquaman.
However, with seven different kingdoms to deal with, and likely a runtime of somewhere in the two-hour range, it seems unlikely that Aquaman will delve too deeply into any one of them or introduce a significant number of characters from them. Therefore, additional films that could tell us more of these stories could certainly make sense. There's been 5,000 years of history of them as separate kingdoms and each has built a separate identity and likely has its own heroes and stories worth telling.
James Wan's comments to Total Film (via ComicBookMovie) that these ideas would be fun to explore make it sounds like he would be at least potentially interested in returning to make future movies in this series. The fact that Wan views the seven kingdoms idea as separate from the Aquaman story makes it sound like this would be more of a spinoff idea rather than a straight sequel.
Of course, at this point, it's far too early to tell if Aquaman will get any sort of sequel. While successful franchises like Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad have sequels in various stages of development, there are apparently no plans to make a sequel to Man of Steel starring the most popular comic book character ever, so sequels are by no means guaranteed.
We'll get our first look at the seven kingdoms, and at Aquaman as a solo hero, when Aquaman hits theaters in December. Until then, check out everything we know about the new film.
