James Wan / Aquaman

Thanks to the breakout success of the gritty shocker Saw in 2004, James Wan was immediately tagged as a filmmaker to watch. His next two movies, the atmospheric horror tale Dead Silence and the brutal thriller Death Sentence, may not have performed well at the box office, but they showed the increasing range of his talent.

They also set the stage for a trio of intense and popular fright flicks from Wan: Insidious (2010), The Conjuring (2013) and Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). After the popular success of those films, Wan took on the action blockbuster Furious 7 after director Justin Lin stepped away from the franchise. Wan guided the movie through its many challenges, including the unexpected death of Paul Walker, and Furious 7 was a giant success worldwide.

Furious 7

The filmmaker declined the opportunity to make the next installment, instead returning to direct The Conjuring 2, which is heading for theatrical release on June 10. He also served as a producer on horror thriller Lights Out, due in theaters on July 22.

Aquaman

Last year, Wan was named director of the upcoming Aquaman, scheduled for release in 2018. Now that he's completed his latest horror projects, he's begun talking about his plans for Aquaman, which will star Jason Momoa, with Amber Heard reportedly set to star as his love interest Mera. 

"The kind of filmmaker that I am, even my darker horror films generally are still very fun and I think that's important for me and the kind of films I make." Wan told IGN at fan convention WonderCon this weekend. "Aquaman is a character that a lot of people have made fun of over the years and I just think it's fun to actually show a really different, cool, badass side to this character, but at the same time, let's not forget to have fun with it."

Wan also told SlashFilm: "There’s always something kind of cool about Aquaman still, the idea of creating a huge world that is on our planet. That’s the thing about Aquaman that’s cool is he’s not an alien, right? He’s from our planet and he’s from a society that we’re not privy to in the context of the story. Isn’t it crazy to think that we’ve explored space more than we have explored the depths of our ocean? That just fires up my imagination about potential sea monsters and cool creatures, that kind of stuff.”

Aquaman will splash into theaters on July 27, 2018.