Producer Peter Safran Talks Aquaman 2 and The Trench Spinoff

March 6, 2019

While promoting the Aquaman exhibit at Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, producer Peter Safran dropped some interesting nuggets about The Trench, the planned Aguaman spinoff he and James Wan are in the process of creating. Notably, the film will take place after Aquaman, but will most likely hit theaters before we get our next adventure with Arthur Curry and his sea pals on Dec. 16, 2022.

Sadly, that also means neither Jason Momoa nor Amber Heard will appear in the dark creature feature that will focus on those creepy Trench creatures that tormented Arthur and Mera in the film’s second act.

“We always, even from the early concept art days, loved the idea of a ‘Trench’ movie,” Safran told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “Then, when audiences embraced it in the movie itself the way they did, particularly that ant farm shot where the camera follows the Trench [creatures] following Arthur and Mera down into the deep, we just knew that we had something very special there and we knew what that movie should be. And consequently, I suspect that that’s one that will come out significantly before ‘Aquaman 2.’”

Safran revealed that he and Wan plan to follow a similar route taken by their Conjuring universe when it comes to the world of Aquaman, i.e. take it slow.

“[Hamada], myself and James Wan always shared the same philosophy, which is: You want to do it right,” Safran said. “You don’t want to do it fast. You just want to do it right.”

After discussing the state of the current DC lineup, of which Safran notes features “a nice slate of movies,” including Shazam!, Birds of Prey, The Batman and The Suicide Squad, the producer stressed the need to for heroes such as Aquaman and Wonder Woman to have their own solo movies.

“Wonder Woman has shown what a great stand-alone property that is,” Safran said. “And in Aquaman, we feel the same way. We think that there’s a great sequel and beyond to tell. We introduce seven kingdoms of Atlantis, right? James Wan knows the architecture, the armory, the military, the look, the feel, the general vibe of each of these kingdoms, and I’m sure that there will be an opportunity to explore them in some way later on.”

The creatures of The Trench first arrived in the pages of DC Comics when Geoff Johns kicked off his Aquaman run for the 2011 reboot “The New 52.” The creatures made their cinematic debut in the Aquaman movie, as a kingdom of sea dwellers who clung to the bottom of the ocean and regressed in their evolution to become more monstrous than human-like.

Released in December to a smattering of critical praise, Aquaman has become the highest grossing DC movie of all time with $1.31 billion at the worldwide box office.