Warner Bros. is working on a “horror-tinged” Aquaman spinoff movie, The Trench. The DC Extended Universe has its biggest hit yet thanks to James Wan’s underwater adventure solo movie for Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa). The film has made over $1 billion at the box office and is officially the highest grossing DC movie ever made.

The success of Aquaman has immediately spawned discussions of a sequel, which are still in the early stages at this point. Wan is said to be waiting for a great Aquaman 2 script before he signs back on to direct another installment. This was thought to be just another regular step in the process and that it would only be a matter of time before Aquaman 2 was announced. But in the meantime, it appears the studios are very anxious to get back to the underwater world and are now working on a spinoff movie.

According to a new report from THR, WB and DC have hired Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald to write a “horror-tinged” script for The Trench, a spinoff movie that would focus on one of the other underwater kingdoms. The Trench are featured multiple times in Aquaman, and the spinoff movie will have more of a horror vibe than the solo film. Wan and Peter Safran will produce the film, which is also said to be aiming for a modest budget. As of right now, there are no plans for any main Aquaman characters to appear.

This is a surprising turn of events for the DCEU and the Aquaman corner of the universe. Even though The Trench have several scenes in Aquaman, they are mainly just used as cannon fodder for Arthur and Mera (Amber Heard) to defeat and escape from or for Aquaman to control in the final battle. They’re essentially devoid of any character in the film, but that will need to be changed if they are becoming the focus of their own story.

That said, there is no confirmation that The Trench will actually feature the underwater creatures as the main characters. Since the script will be “horror-tinged,” the plan could be for The Trench creatures to actually be the adversaries in the film. With a lower budget and horror genre in mind, this could be a scenario where The Trench terrorize locals or a group of humans who unknowingly stumble across their kingdom. If this is the case, then it could be the latest effort by WB to differentiate the genres of their DC films.

Unfortunately, there are no further details on The Trench at this time that help give us a better understanding of the concept behind the film, who will direct it, star in it, or when it could hit theaters. Those details will come eventually, if The Trench actually makes it out of the development phase.

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Source: THR

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