Warner Bros. has shared a short teaser for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom that can confirm the movie still exists and is slated for release on December 20, 2023, with a full-length trailer set to drop this Thursday, August 14. The new video, which lasts only 30 seconds but teases some of the action from James Wan’s new film, including a fight between Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), was released shortly after rumors swirled on social media about how Warner Bros. had given up on marketing the film. According to @TheComixKid account, this is because the studio already “knows it’s bad”—an idea corroborated by the fact that there have already been multiple reshoots, as The Hollywood Reporter revealed in July.
The movie was in the middle of postproduction and beginning test screenings that summer. While a timeline is not clear, from summer 2022 to the beginning of 2023, The Lost Kingdom underwent two rounds of reshoots and held several uninspiring test screenings.
[James] Gunn is said to have weighed in on the most recent cut, and the leadership approved a five-day shoot. Sources say the shoot went so well that Wan and company completed what they needed in only four.
Because they know it’s bad, they know it’ll lose money, and they aren’t putting a marketing budget behind it at all https://t.co/Gh2kqmqkEo
— KC Walsh (@TheComixKid) September 7, 2023