“Aquaman” was a box office hit, however, like most Hollywood movies — the sequel is shaping up to be a disaster.
While the pandemic threw a wrench in its development, one of its lead stars was embroiled in the middle of a messy and extremely public court case.
That court case was between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, which ended in Heard being almost completely written out of the “Aquaman” sequel.
“There are even rumors out there that the studio is so skeptical about how this film is going to perform at the box office that they’re not even bothering to market it,” Lauren Chen says, because they seem to recognize that they’re going to lose money doing so.
The film has reportedly undergone its third set of reshoots since it finished principal photography in January 2022 and cost around $200 million to make.
“Personally, I think that number is probably artificially low,” Chen says, noting the number of reshoots. “Anytime I hear that a film has had to undergo a reshoot, it’s kind of a red flag in my mind.”
Even the director, James Wan, has said he’s “had to make adjustments along the way,” which only confirms Chen’s belief that this film is likely to crash and burn.
As for test screening, there have also been reports that people have actually been walking out of screenings of “Aquaman.”
“I’m not going to go into exactly what the alleged scene that caused people to walk out of the film is, but I mean, if it’s true — let’s just say it would in fact be a very disturbing scene to see in any movie,” Chen says.
There are now even rumors that Jason Momoa’s role in the DC Universe, which fans had previously been told was secure, is also up in the air.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” Chen adds.
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