Aquaman director James Wan reveals how he'll show underwater dialogue

So, how is Aquaman director James Wan going to solve that underwater dialogue problem, anyway?

You’ll recall that in Justice League, director Zack Snyder had Mera (Amber Heard) create a giant air pocket underwater so she could have a chat with Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa). Fans drowned that scene with criticism, noting that Atlanteans don’t need air to talk. Wan then teased on Twitter he would handle underwater dialogue differently in his upcoming stand-alone movie, which has caused all sorts of speculation as to how he might pull that off.

EW got to see about 15 minutes of the new film and noticed something. The characters … when they’re underwater … they just …

“People are overthinking it,” Wan says. “They’re just gonna talk!”

Precisely. Characters underwater speak normally in the film despite being underwater. Wan then adds a tad bit of a visual effect as Atlanteans speak, suggesting sound waves, but that’s all. It’s a rather brilliantly simple and naturalistic-looking solution to a problem that isn’t wasn’t actually that big of a problem in the first place.

Underwater scenes are an enormous part of the new film and were the biggest draw for Wan (Furious 7, The Conjuring franchise), who was most excited by the challenge of creating an entirely new fantastical world.

The reveal comes on the heels of EW’s exclusive report on Tuesday where Warner Bros. and DC executives gave their thoughts on Aquaman after having seen some of the completed footage. The film will be released Dec. 21.

UPDATE: 7 new Aquaman photos released, showing Vulko, Black Manta, Queen Atlanna, Mera and more.

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