Aquaman Pushed Back To December 2018

IMAGE VIA CLAY ENOS/ WARNER BROS

We’ll be spending Christmas 2018 in Atlantis as Warner Bros have announced they’ll be pushing back the release of Aquaman from 5th October to December 21 of that year.

It will now open on the same date Avatar 2 was originally slated, but after being delayed for the 900th time as the James Cameron-directed sequel makes his return to Pandora.

This means the Jason Momoa led superhero film will go up against another superhero film in the form of Sony’s animated Spider-Man movie, following the character Miles Morales, written by Phil Lord (Untitled Han Solo film, The LEGO Movie).

The two other December 2018 releases are Mortal Engines, a sci-fi film with Peter Jackson attached as producer and screenwriter, and Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meryl Steep and Colin Firth.

IMAGE VIA JAY MAIDMENT/ DISNEY

When Variety reported the story and discussion started on Twitter with many DC fans worried because of the threat Disney/Lucasfilm might move the Untitled Han Solo spin-off from its May 2018 to December.

Honestly, moving Aquaman from a non-traditional big box office opening month of October to December and we all know (thanks to Star Wars) the Xmas holidays can mean big business for studios.

Meanwhile, if you’re worried about the threat of Han Solo moving release dates, I really don’t think you should be because of one popular British nanny. With Mary Poppins Returns already slated to come out during the holidays it’s the perfect release date for Disney.

As the film will bring in all generations from grandparents, who saw the original in 1964, to kids today being introduced to the character for the first time.

For that reason, Disney could make a decent box office opening and hit above $100 million, but I don’t think WB should be worried because with a director like James Wan at the helm everyone is excited to see a massive high-seas, action-adventure film which can make more during the holidays and over January than in October.

Wan went on to Twitter to double confirm the news.

Merry Christmas

— James Wan (@creepypuppet) 16 March 2017