Warner Bros. Discovery appears nervous about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with claims suggesting an obsessive amount of test screenings.After James Gunn’s DC slate announcement, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom seems stuck between the DCEU and the new DCU, which is a consequence of a soft reboot where some characters and storylines stay the same while others change. The success of the first Aquaman film is reason enough to keep Jason Momoa as the character, but it seems like the sequel has taken a turn for the worse before the movie has even been theatrically released.Insider ViewerAnon expressed their discontent with the amount of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom test screenings in a Twitter post that directly calls out Warner Bros. They expand on this sentiment by stating that it is not a reflection of the film’s quality but of the sheer number of test screenings. “It tested last week, it's testing again tomorrow. I think everyone in Los Angeles has seen it at least once.” This comes after ViewerAnon had previously reported that Aquaman 2 was testing very poorly after a dozen test screenings, calling it “boring” and “not as good as the first,” backed up by others supporting these claims. Big Screen Leaks replied to the post agreeing and further expresses that if they have to “hear about [REDACTED] one more time” they’re “gonna lose it,” which could be about Amber Heard, the actor who played Mera in the first film, and the controversies that have followed her since the Johnny Depp trial.
The performance of Shazam 2 could be a bad sign for Aquaman 2, especially after Shazam director David Sandberg expressed that many of the film's scenes were removed after test screenings. An argument against test screenings could also translate to a better film, as they may diminish artistic integrity by using any person, unbiased or not, to gauge a film's quality. Other superhero films by Warner Bros. have been hit by the same studio meddling that plays into what they think audiences want to see, like why Shazam 2 needed to be less silly, Batman v Superman needed to be more lighthearted, Justice League needed to be more comedic, or Suicide Squad needed to be more silly and fun. Often, this results in a director’s vision being stripped away from them, as audience or studio executives insert their own analysis and change a film into something other than what it was intended to be and into what they think generates financial success.
The irony is that if Warner Bros. had trusted their directors, they might have found more financial success, such as theatrically releasing the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman and Zack Snyder's Justice League. The same pattern of choices seems to haunt Aquaman 2, but hopefully, it amounts to a film that James Wan can still be proud of, despite the same thing happening to David Ayer, who is still campaigning for his cut of Suicide Squad to this day.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to release on December 25, 2023.
Source: ViewerAnon