After the huge success of 2018’s Aquaman, director James Wan had made plans for a lower budget horror spin-off based on the Trench sequence from the film. Those of us who are horror fans, especially involving James Wan, were very excited for this film, so when news dropped back in April that the Trench film was being scrapped, disappointment set in. But that disappointment has now grown, as it was recently revealed that the Trench film was secretly a Black Manta film.
Director James Wan recently put out a post on Instagram showing off Black Manta’s costume for Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, and in the comments someone asked him if he would be doing a Black Manta series. Wan’s response was so low key that the news seems to have slid under the radar for a week.
Wan replied, “I’ll let you in on a secret, the canceled Trench spin-off movie was really going to be a secret Black Manta movie.”
This would have been incredible!
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was a shining star in Aquaman, and to see him get his own film would have been a wonderful surprise. I only have two questions… 1. Would this movie have still focused on the Trench? And 2. Why wouldn’t you just lead with the fact that it was a Black Manta movie?
I think people would have been far more receptive to the idea of a Black Manta movie as opposed to the Trench one we were all told about.
Hopefully HBO Max will take this idea and allow Wan to rework it into a series for the streaming service, especially if the upcoming The Suicide Squad spin-off series, Peacemaker, does well.
You can see more of Black Manta in Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom, which is slated to hit theaters on December 16, 2022.
