Aquaman’sJames Wan Was Secretly Working on a Black Manta Movie

We all thought the news was too eldritch to be honest and , apparently , it was . Back in early 2019 , we regain out that hot on the heel of James Wan ’s DC film Aquaman makinga big box office splash(get it ? ) , Warner Bros. was developing a smaller - scale , horror spinoff based on the creatures who appeared during its submerged trench episode . The ideawas so specific and weirdbut seemed like the perfect boulevard for the director of Saw , Insidious , and Malignant to make a coolheaded superhero horror moving picture .

Alas , the Trench movie was delete earlier this yearbut … we now seemingly know the Sojourner Truth : it was never destined to happen . Last week , Wan post a slam of Black Manta ’s ( played by The Matrix Resurrections’new Morpheus , Yahya Abdul - Mateen II ) bright helmet on his Instagram to spotlight the costume and production work on the sequelAquaman and the Lost Kingdom . It was n’t until sometime after that the conductor revealed something fairly shocking : the Trench movie was never a real thing ; instead , it was code for a Black Manta movie . Check out the comment , which I took a screenshot of from Instagram on my telephone set .

Wan , who goes by “ CreepyPuppet ” on Instagram , was reply to a fan who asked if he ’d do a Black Manta streaming series ( presumptively HBO Max , wherelots of matter are happeningthese days ) . Wan did n’t answer like a shot , instead decide to say , “ I ’ll let you in on a secret , the canceled Trench spin - off movie was really going to be a secret Black Manta movie . ” io9 has reached out to Warner Bros. for confirmation or clarification on this news and will update the piece when or if that happens .

Black Manta, as seen in James Wan’s Aquaman.

Black Manta, as seen in James Wan’s Aquaman.Image: Warner Bros.

In Aquaman , as well as the upcomingLost Kingdom , Manta is toy by Abdul - Mateen . The first photographic film saw him as almost a mini - foreman , nothing but a cat’s-paw in Orm ’s ( Patrick Wilson ) scheme . But in the film ’s end credit shot , Manta is rescued by a marine biologist who harmonise to serve him defeat Aquaman in exchange for information on Atlantis . These are events that we ’ll plausibly see in the sequel film or , maybe , were going to happen in this spinoff . No matter the casing , the most interesting part of this news report is the need for Wan and Warner Bros. to , evidently , concoct a fake idea to cut through up the real one . Was the Trench movie going to become a Black Manta movie in the heart of it ? Or was the studio apartment going to let out the ruse before release ? We do n’t know for sure . Honestly , neither progress to a peck of mother wit but it ’s surely a fun and fascinating “ what if . ”

We ’ll next see Abdul - Mateen inThe Matrix Resurrectionswhich opens December 22 , and repay as Black Manta in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom , coming out December 16 , 2022 .

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Screenshot: Instagram/Germain Lussier for io9