Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom And The Flash Will Feature Never-Before-Used VFX Techniques, Patrick Wilson Says
Get ready for more scenes of Patrick Wilson yelling. The actor is reprising his role as Arthur Curry's half-brother Orm (AKA Ocean Master) in "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," a DC Extended Universe sequel that once again pairs him opposite Jason Momoa as the eponymous superhero, with James Wan calling the shots.
"Lost Kingdom" is the latest effects-heavy movie for Wilson, coming after the first "Aquaman" film and his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich on "Midway" and "Moonfall." It's also arriving at a time when multiverse stories are suddenly all the rage in comic book superhero movies, on the heels of "Spider-Man: No Way Home." The impending "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" will, as its title implies, take audiences even further into the different timelines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then, later this year, the DCEU's long-awaited "Flash" solo film will see Ezra Miller's Barry Allen create an alternate reality in a storyline inspired by the famous "Flashpoint" comic book arc.
Wilson commented on the rise of the cinematic multiverse in an interview with Collider, noting that it's already "so overused now, as a term." He went on to tease the innovative visual effects that both the "Aquaman" sequel and "Flash" movie will use in order to bring their, respectively, underwater and timeline-altering sequences to life:
"We've got great relationships in ['Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom'], some fantastic action sequences. We push all the fighting and the stunts ... we've used crazy techniques between us and The Flash that have never been used before. So all these new VFX techniques that we're using."
More Octopuses Playing the Bongos? We're In!
As dazzling as the visual effects were in the first "Aquaman" movie, it was the way Wan embraced the inherent silliness of the titular character's mythology that really made the whole thing work as well as it did. It's nothing out of character for Wan (a director who's yet to meet a ridiculous idea that he couldn't get to fly on-screen), and if anything, it sounds like he's going to serve up even more weirdness in the sequel, thank goodness. At least, that's what Wilson indicated while hinting at the plot for "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom":
"And then storyline is... obviously not going to get into that. But James loves to pick and choose from his own mind and comics and how we bring in certain elements. Those little moments that even... I don't know, pick one in the gladiator sequence. There's an octopus playing drums. Now comic book nerds will go, 'Yeah, well, it's Topo. Come on, guys. That's who it is.' So those little moments; they'll be a lot more of that stuff, for sure."
In terms of the plot, Wan has said that "Lost Kingdom" was "heavily inspired" by Italian director Mario Bava's 1965 sci-fi horror flick "Planet of the Vampires," a film in which human astronauts travel to a deadly planet where they encounter bodiless vampire-like aliens seeking to take control of their physical forms and make their way back to Earth. Like the first "Aquaman," Bava's cult movie is full of vibrant colors and strange-but-stylish imagery, so you can already see why it might appeal to Wan's sensibilities as an artist. That also bodes well for those "never before used" visual effects that Wilson teased.
"The Flash" opens in U.S. theaters on November 4, 2022, followed by "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" just over a month later on December 16, 2022.