While Black Manta's spinoff movie The Trench may no longer see the light of the surface, that doesn't mean some parts of it won't live on in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
Speaking to Collider, director James Wan confirmed that some aspects of The Trench were repurposed for the Jason Momoa-led sequel. "We had developed the Trench movie, and ultimately, like most things, you develop — if they work out, great, if they don't, then that's fine as well. We didn't want that project to potentially step on the Aquaman films, but we came up with a lot of really interesting ideas and really cool stuff that I felt we could use it in this one," Wan explained. "And so with the Trench movie, it was going to be a secret Black Manta, right? Initially, we announced it as a Trench movie, but ultimately, we wanted to surprise the fans because that was going to be a stand-alone Black Manta movie. And so when that didn't happen, some of those ideas kind of found their way into this there."
While Black Manta won't be starring in his own movie any time soon, the fan-favorite villain will have a much larger role in The Lost Kingdom. Having been bested by Aquaman in the first movie, David Kane is still desperately seeking revenge for the death of his father. In order to overcome Arthur Curry, he embraces the power of the Black Trident, a mystical weapon that grants him various mystical abilities. Yet in doing so, Manta will seemingly unleash an even greater evil upon Atlantis. While DC Studios has yet to confirm what form this bigger threat will take, fans are speculating that it will be the Atlan, the Dead King, who was originally responsible for sinking Atlantis.
Black Manta's Back and Bigger Than Ever
Wan has spoken at length about why he wanted to give Black Manta an expanded role in The Lost Kingdom, noting that he wanted to please fans who may have been disappointed with his role in the first film. "If you're an Aquaman fan, you obviously know that Black Manta is a big nemesis of Aquaman. My plan with the first movie was always to set up a relationship with him and Aquaman," Wan explained. "He was kind of a glorified side character in the first one. But we knew that that was going to be okay because we knew that the second movie was where we could go with him in a much bigger role."
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters on Dec. 20.
Source: Collider