Warner Bros. and DC have a hit on their hands with Aquaman, which is officially the highest grossing movie in the DCEU. The solo adventure takes place after the events of 2017's Justice League, yet none of the other heroes pop in for a cameo. This was obviously very intentional. Here's what director James Wan said when asked if he ever considered having anyone else from the Justice League appear in Aquaman.
No, I just feel like this is his standalone movie, just let it be about Aquaman. I feel like all the other characters have had so many movies; audiences have known all the other characters in all the other movies, all these different projects. Let this be Aquaman's time in the spotlight.
Being a connected cinematic universe, members of the Justice League show up in each other's movies from time to time. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice basically introduced all the heroes. Suicide Squad had a cameo from Flash and Batman. Wonder Woman had a letter from Bruce Wayne, if you want to count that, but otherwise Wonder Woman ran the show on her own.
However, Aquaman is the first DCEU movie after Justice League, which wasn't a smooth experience for the studio. People were curious how much or little Aquaman would reference the events and characters of that movie. It opted to go as little as possible, but for good reason.
James Wan told HuffPost that Superman, Batman, or any of the members of the Justice League don't show up in Aquaman because it would take the spotlight away from Arthur Curry. All the members of the League have had many of their own movies or TV shows at this point, but Aquaman has never had one all to himself. This is his first movie, so why not let him be the only superhero and get the attention he deserves?
I'd say that's good reasoning for not having any Justice League cameos in the movie. In the MCU, outside of post-credits scenes, most heroes usually don't cameo in each other's movies. If they do, it's for a more substantial role like Iron Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming or everyone in Captain America: Civil War.
Additionally, Aquaman doesn't really address any of the events of the DCEU. There's literally one throwaway line about defeating Steppenwolf and then it's off to the undersea races. I think that was for the best, and it'll be interesting to see how Shazam! handles its connections to the DCEU.
You can catch Aquaman and only Aquaman in his successful standalone movie, which is out in theaters right now. For more movie news, be sure to keep it right here at CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated as soon as that information is available.
