Aquaman was a gigantic commercial hit for DC Comics and Warner Bros, no question about it. Having collected over $1.1 billion worldwide, it is now the highest-grossing DC movie of all time, knocking 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises off the #1 spot. With a performance like that, naturally there’s been talk of making a sequel, but it also turns out that there is also a spinoff being worked on that will focus on the The Trench.
According to THR, Warner Bros has hired writers Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald to pen a “horror-tinged script” about The Trench, with the tale set within The Trench kingdom. With James Wan, Jason Momoa and the rest of the main Aquaman team wanting to take their time on getting Aquaman 2 off the ground, evidently Warner Bros is keen on placing the spotlight on these amphibious monsters in the meantime, assuming it moves forward. The Trench spinoff would be “much more modestly budgeted” compared to Aquaman, and the main cast of the sixth DC Extended Universe movie would not appear. Wan and Aquaman producer Peter Safran are attached to produce.
The Trench are a relatively recent addition to the Aquaman mythos, with Geoff Johns introducing these creatures at the start of his New 52 run on the Aquaman comic book. In the main DC Comics continuity, The Trench reside at the bottom of the ocean, and it was later revealed that they’re the descendants of a group of inhabitants of Atlantis who survived the continent’s sinking centuries ago and evolved to survive their new environment, hence why they look so different from the modern day Atlanteans.
In the DCEU, The Trench are one of the seven tribes of Atlantis, and Arthur Curry and Mera fought off a swarm of the monsters during their search for Atlan’s trident. Arthur’s mother, Atlanna, had also been sacrificed to The Trench years earlier for having a half-human, half-Atlantean son, although it was later revealed that she managed to avoid being devoured by them by escaping into a portal leading to The Hidden Sea.
It will be interesting to learn how this Trench movie is going to be handled. Because they’re animalistic, there’s not that much substance to them. So either you tell an origin story revealing how The Trench came to be, or, and I suspect this is the likelier option given the horror tone the spinoff is going for, you follow a group of characters who are desperately trying not to be killed by The Trench. If the latter approach is taken, since apparently none of the main Aquaman cast will be featured, then who are the specific DC characters (who, let’s not forget, need to be able to breathe underwater) you would bring in to star in the feature? One thing is certain, though: if handled correctly, this could be a terrifying movie within the superhero genre.
If there are any updates about the The Trench spinoff, we here at CinemaBlend will be sure to let you know. In the meantime, Aquaman is winding down its run in theaters and will be released on Digital HD on March 5, and on Blu-ray and DVD March 26.
