Compared to its DC Extended Universe predecessors, James Wan's Aquaman is a lot of fun. It's a blockbuster that is serious when it's wants to be, but it's also a comic book movie that features an octopus playing the drums. Its flexible tone is arguably a big part of what made it the biggest DC Comics adaptation ever made – so it should not be surprising in the slightest to learn that the upcoming sequel, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, is going to be leaning into that kind of delightfulness even more.
Patrick Wilson will be reprising his role as Orm, the titular hero's villainous half-brother, in the Aquaman follow-up, and he recently told ComicBook.com about what fans can expect from the film's tone. Echoing comments from co-star Jason Momoa, the actor explained that he had a "great time" making the film, and that audiences will see a greater emphasis on the lighter side of comic book movie making in Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Said Wilson,
The movie's gonna be a blast. We had such a great time shooting it, I will absolutely say that. And the tone, I think he took the tone in those moments in the first one that we enjoyed, and that kind of went beyond the comic book world in that they were much more really appealing to a wider audience, and we embraced that.
Continuing, Patrick Wilson noted that director James Wan created a kind of baseline tone in the making of the first Aquaman movie, and after getting a positive response to what he's doing he made the call to "push" things further with the sequel:
I think we embraced the tone much more in this movie, we established what James established, what he wanted to do with the first one, it was clearly successful, and it's like, 'OK, so now let's just push it.' So every little fun moment, every goofy moment, every heartfelt moment, every action moment, some of the set pieces are unbelievable, the stunts were crazy, fighting sequences are crazy, just awesome.
Patrick Wilson clearly loves working with James Wan, as Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom will be their sixth time collaborating as actor and director – and it sounds like the one coming up will be their most fun yet (though it's debatable how much that's saying given that four of those past films are nightmare-inducing chapters from the Conjuring and Insidious franchises).
The last time we saw Orm in Aquaman, he was being hauled away to be imprisoned for his violent ambition, and while we don't know exactly what he's been going through, the first look at the character in the upcoming movie lets us know with absolute certainty that he hasn't been given access to a shaving razor in the place where he's locked up.
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is one of five DC blockbusters that are set to be released in 2022, and it's set up as the grand finale for the end of the year. Following the premieres of The Batman, DC League of Super-Pets, Black Adam, and The Flash, the highly anticipated underwater sequel will be released on December 16.
To learn about all of the films currently developing from DC Comics, check out our Upcoming DC Movies guide, and the Aquaman 2 What We Know So Far feature will tell you everything you want to know about the film. Head over to our 2022 Movie Release Calendar to keep up to date about all of the features hitting theaters and streaming between now and the start of 2023.
