'The Trench', Horror Movie 'Aquaman' Spin-Off, Now In The Works At Warner Bros.

Here's something I'm positive no one saw coming: Warner Bros. is planning an Aquaman spin-off...that's also a horror movie. The Trench will focus on the monstrous trench creatures revealed in James Wan's Aquaman. Wan will produce the spin-off, which is said to have a much lower budget than the recent DC blockbuster. 

THR broke the news about The Trench, a horror movie spin-off of James Wan's Aquaman. The film will focus on the Lovecraftian Trench creatures that Jason Momoa and Amber Heard encounter in Wan's box office smash. The creatures are a former Atlantian kingdom that devolved into hideous fish-monsters. And while this is a spin-off, don't expect to see Jason Momoa bro-ing his way through the movie. THR says "details of the take are being kept submerged but it will be set in the kingdom of the Trench and will not feature the main cast of Aquaman." Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald will write the script, while Wan and Peter Safran will produce.

Here's how the creatures are described in the book The Art and Making of Aquaman:

"The Trench were just any other Atlanteans before the Great Fall. After Atlantis and its various people migrated to different locations, the Trench mutated and adapted to their surroundings in the deepest, darkest point of the ocean: the Mariana Trench. Over thousands of years, they devolved into primal, sharp-clawed monsters with exposed gills and an aversion to light."

"We created an animatic version of that scene and showed the studio," producer Peter Safran says in the same book, "and it harkened back to James Wan's pure horror days. It's like Creature from the Black Lagoon, but the 2018 version. It's pure horror, it's fantastic, and I think it's one of the things that really got the green light for the movie."

"James's bread and butter is horror. He really wanted to make that scene special and it meant quite a lot to him," adds art director and production designer Bill Brizeski.

I kind of love this idea. A horror movie spin-off of a superhero movie is so strange, and unexpected, and different. This is the kind of bold, out-there thinking more superhero movie producers should be taking. At the same time, it also suggests Warners really doesn't know what the hell to do with their properties. They clearly saw the box office returns of Aquaman, and realized they needed more than just sequels. Enter: The Trench.