Is Aquaman 2 Being Set Up To Fail?

Aquaman 2 is already getting such a lackluster response that many are starting to speculate over how much of a chance for success the DCEU sequel had in the first place. When James Wan climbed into the director’s chair for the Jason Momoa-led movie in 2018, no one knew what to expect. It was the first live-action portrayal of a character most people knew from silly jokes about its titular character. Naturally, the DC movie had a pretty big budget at around $160–200 million. Special effects alone would’ve driven the price up even with much of the production crew allegedly being severely underpaid. However, not even Wan could’ve predicted the movie pulling in almost $2 billion at the box office. More importantly, the response from critics and fans alike was overwhelmingly positive.