Earlier this week, Aquaman director James Wan shared a photo of himself with actor Randall Park, who’s joining the DC film as part of its ongoing reshoots. Comic book movie fans being who they are, though, were determined to see if they could extract any clues from the pic, and sure enough, closer analysis of it has led to the reveal of a pretty juicy one. And that’s because it seems as if the reshoots are adding in some sort of reference to Aquaman’s Justice League pal, Superman.
Down in the gallery below, you’ll be able to see Wan’s initial photo. Which, all things considered, looks pretty innocent. However, if you flip through, you’ll note that upon further inspection, the papers that Park is holding have some writing on them. It’s hard to make out, but it appears to read “Existence of Superman.”
See for yourself:
This could be everything or nothing, as a single sentence is all we’ve got to go on, but it appears that Aquaman‘s reshoots will strengthen the movie’s ties to the wider DCEU at least a little. Not to mention that this additional footage being shot will also significantly change the film, if adding in a whole new character – Park’s Dr. Shin – is anything to go by. In the comics, Shin’s obsessed with finding the location of Atlantis, so perhaps the Man of Steel reference suggests he likes to study Earth’s superheroes?
Of course, we don’t yet know exactly what changes the reshoots will make to Aquaman, but one report claimed that test audiences felt the initial cut was at least 15 minutes too long at a cumbersome 2 hours and 30 minutes. So presumably, the reshoots will find a way to elegantly streamline the narrative. We just hope it won’t result in another hatchet job like Justice League.
Either way, the DCEU sinks or swims with the success of Aquaman. If it’s another giant dud for Warner Bros., I’d expect all future projects in the universe to be shelved with the exception of Wonder Woman 2. If it’s a success, well, then let’s just hope that they’ll be able to keep up the momentum with what they’ve got coming down the pipeline.