Now that Aquaman has raked in more than one billion dollars at the global box office, it’s probably safe to assume that as long as Warner Bros. continue making enjoyable DC-themed films that resonate with most moviegoers, they should be good from here on out. In fact, recent news even says that more focus is being placed on standalone superhero flicks going forward, as opposed to following the Marvel Studios model.
As you may know, the winds shifted in Burbank several times before we got to this point. Those of you who enjoy keeping up with this kind of stuff should be aware of how a Flashpoint film was being planned before Justice League tanked. Cool as something like that would’ve been to witness on the silver screen, it just wouldn’t have made sense to assemble what would essentially be JL 1.5 when the first attempt didn’t bring in the desired loot.
But while Aquaman was being filmed, Flashpoint was still on the table. Thus, a small teaser was placed into the movie – and it stayed there. Admittedly, it’s quite subtle, but test screening organizer Neil Daly recently revealed this highly intriguing bit of trivia while appearing on the Fire and Water podcast:
“There was another one, that one of the newspaper headings said ‘Wonder Woman Nixes Aquaman Dating Rumor,’ which most people are just going to take that as tongue-in-cheek and think it was funny. But at the time of the filming, that was when they were still talking about going ahead with Flashpoint being the Flash story that they were going to do. And so there was a reference to Aquaman and Wonder Woman dating.”
If you require a refresher on what Daly’s talking about, it was that newspaper headline seen in Dr. Shin’s workspace during the mid-credits scene. Of course, it can simply be written off now as a humorous tabloid gag, but I’ll clue in those unfamiliar as to how this connects to Flashpoint.
You see, in the comic – and in the faithfully adapted animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox – Aquaman and Wonder Woman actually had an affair at one point in the alternate timeline in which the story takes place. But what made it worse was how it served as the catalyst for an all-out war between Atlantis and Themyscira – not to mention putting the entire planet on the brink of annihilation.
While it’s fun to ponder what might’ve been, you’ll have to keep content with the two tellings of the tale just mentioned. But when it comes to Aquaman, one would be foolish not to think his own future looks very bright, or that a sequel won’t follow within the next few years.