Aquaman director James Wan denies a rumor that claims Warner Bros. meddled with the movie by cutting 20 minutes from the upcoming DC film. Hitting theaters in December, Aquaman is the latest movie set to be released by Warner Bros. in their current DC cinematic universe - unofficially known as the DC Extended Universe. Since the franchise officially kicked off with Zack Snyder's Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, following a soft launch in Man of Steel, the DCEU has been plagued by negativity. Reports of extensive reshoots, director changes, studio mandates and bad critical reviews affected sentiment around Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League. (Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman is, so far, the only outlier.)
That's not to say Batman V Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League are without problems or above criticism. But the tone of the conversation surrounding these movies and, to some extent, Wonder Woman as well, has been largely negative. And it perhaps has begun to carry over into upcoming DC releases. At least, that seems to be the case in terms of a rumor going around about Aquaman - but the film's director, James Wan, has already denied the rumor.
Related: The DCEU is Finally Generating Good Post-Justice League Buzz
Twitter user Ronster Monster tweeted that, according to "multiple sources," Warner Bros. cut 20 minutes from Aquaman. However, it's unclear who exactly Ronster Monster's sources may be, and the user isn't affiliated with any kind of publication so the rumor should have been taken with a major grain of salt to begin with. Still, the tweet was brought to Wan's attention, and the director took the time to dismiss it. See both Ronster Monster and Wan's tweets below.
With Aquaman just a little over two months away from hitting theaters, it's possible the movie's final cut hasn't locked completely, but if that's the case, Wan and Warner Bros. are undoubtedly close to it. As such, it's unlikely the studio would be making such massive cuts this late in the post-production process. Of course, big cuts would have been made early on while editing Aquaman. Thanks in part to the Justice League Snyder cut campaign, more movie fans are knowledgeable about assembly cuts of films. As its name implies, the assembly cut assembles the entire movie together before reshoots that fill in any gaps missing and before cutting out insignificant footage.
So, at some point in the Aquaman editing process, a chunk of footage as much as 20 minutes was undoubtedly cut by Wan. But this latest rumor accuses Warner Bros. of purposefully meddling with Aquaman by cutting 20 minutes from the movie, which is what Wan denies in his own response. Of course, it can be argued that Wan wouldn't want any negativity to affect Aquaman, and denied the rumor to save face. But there have been no reports from reputable publications (publications that did report on the troubles of other DCEU movies) about Warner Bros. interfering with Wan's vision for Aquaman.
As such, the insubstantial nature of the rumor and Wan's swift denial seem to indicate there's nothing as of yet to worry about in regards to Aquaman. And, with the movie only a few months away from hitting theaters, moviegoers will get to see Warner Bros' latest DC movie for themselves soon enough.
Next: Aquaman Is Fixing The DCEU's PR Problem
Source: James Wan/Twitter