As the DCEU becomes a sight in the rear-view mirror for the world, people cannot help but turn back to the last film in the now-discontinued franchise, which was none other than Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom. The sequel to the most successful film in the narrative of WB’s previous DC cinematic universe, it had big shoes to fill, which barely managed to achieve in the end despite having to face the Amber Heard controversy.
Thus, the development and completion of the film, as with many projects, had a lot of changes and alterations made to it, some of which, although unintentionally, were for the better. For example, director James Wan initially wanted to kill off Willem Dafoe’s character Vulko in the film, but due to his unavailability for the shoot, his character was taken out of the picture without giving him a tragic end.
James Wan Initially Planned To Kill Willem Dafoe’s Vulko In Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom
When Jason Momoa was first seen in the DCEU, he had already been a partially developed character in 2017’s Justice League, which made it even more intriguing for the audience to go and watch his standalone film Aquaman, something that made it a super hit.
By far one of the most important individuals who shaped the character of Arthur Curry was Vulko, played by actor Willem Dafoe, which naturally made him a beloved character.
Thus, when people learn what filmmaker James Wan wanted to do with this character in the latest Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, many might feel upset. In the past, it was revealed that the reason why the Spider-Man: No Way Home star wasn’t part of the project was because he had a tight schedule to adhere to, and thus, couldn’t engage with this DC project at the same time. This is the reason why his character had no mention in this film at the end.
But according to industry insider @MyTimeToShineH, even if Dafoe had been part of the production, his presence wouldn’t have been felt since he would’ve been killed off-screen with just a couple of scenes of him in this film.
In the original cut of Aquaman 2 there was a whole subplot about a virus going rapid in Atlantis and that is what killed Vulko off screen. But I hear that in the most recent cut they screened they removed any mention of it and him pic.twitter.com/MCvHVJ0cxO
— MyTimeToShineHello (@MyTimeToShineH) September 20, 2023
This would’ve been an entire subplot of the project which would’ve further helped in expanding on the narrative and solidifying the reasoning for the protagonist’s actions taken in the film.
Why Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom Wasn’t Well Received
One of the main reasons why Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom failed in the eyes of the public was because it became a generic and formulaic offering with nothing unique about it.
While the first film wasn’t a critical masterpiece, it still had some unique elements to it that made it click with the audience better. Along with that, there were a lot of lackluster inconsistencies to the wider DCEU, such as the exclusion of the members of the Justice League, which made it feel disjointed and inconsistent, not to mention that superhero fatigue was starting to set in with the public, which led to the film’s downfall.
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, streaming on Max.
