Recall that we told you it would be called The Trench, with the screenplay to be developed by Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald. James Wan is returning as a producer (along with Peter Safran) and presumably returning as director of Aquaman.
Industry observers (neither are we) aren’t exactly shocked by the news of a sequel beginning the development process, for as Scott Mendelson writing for Forbes notes: “Aquaman is a few days away from, sans inflation or exchange rates, becoming the fourth-biggest non-Disney/non-Universal release of all time.”
Mendelson continues: “With $1.121 billion worldwide, it is just behind Paramount/Viacom’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($1.1214b in 2011). Once it passes Transformers 3, it’ll be behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II ($1.43b in 2011), Fox and Paramount’s Titanic ($2.1b, counting the 2012 reissue) and Avatar ($2.78b in 2009/2010). It’s already WB’s second-biggest grosser ever behind Harry Potter 7.2.”
It’s noteworthy that Aquaman owns part of its success to Chinese cinemagoers where it made nearly $300m in the box office after opening with a record $90m.
