The DCEU franchise is more or less coming to an end with the upcoming film Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The film notoriously faced a variety of delays, reshoots, and controversies throughout its production. Now Aquaman 2 is facing criticisms because its first teaser reuses footage from the first Aquaman movie.
It’s not unusual for a film to use stock footage. It is unusual, however, for a major blockbuster like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to rely on such recycled clips. Especially when those clips are featured in extremely short teasers. Of course, it’s unclear how the recycled footage is being used in the overall movie.
For starters, it could be part of a flashback to the first Aquaman film featuring Jason Momoa. Of course, if that’s the case, it’s still a strange decision to utilize it in a short teaser for the sequel. Nevertheless, fans have spotted the reused footage, and they’re not exactly impressed. Here’s a tweet which included a comparison of the footage between the two trailers:
The ‘AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM’ trailer reuses a shot from the first movie. pic.twitter.com/2BTgTwZUsA
— One Take News (@OneTakeNews) September 11, 2023
The main difference is that there’s slightly different examples of color grading between the two clips. Which, with that in mind, could mean that it’s not a flashback but an attempt at making the Aquaman footage look new. We’ll just have to see what happens once the full film is released.
The new sequel was directed by James Wan from a screenplay written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. He co-wrote the first Aquaman film alongside Will Beall and James Wan.
In addition to Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Amber Heard as Mera, the cast of the film includes Patrick Wilson as Ocean Master, Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to hit theaters on December 20, 2023. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the upcoming DC adaptation as we have them.