With just over three months left before Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hits theaters on December 20, the lack of any type of marketing has fueled rumors that Warner Bros. is essentially abandoning the film.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a follow-up to Warner Bros.’ 2018 smash hit Aquaman, which took in $335 million domestic and $1.14 billion worldwide.
Jason Momoa returns as the title character, as does controversial actress Amber Heard as Mera.
There were rumors in July that WB may push Dune Part Two, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Color Purple into 2024, due to the ongoing writers and actors strikes, with both unions forbidding its members from promoting their work from struck companies during the work stoppage.
While the studio did ultimately push Dune Part Two from its November 3, 2023 release to March 15, 2024, it hasn’t pushed The Color Purple or Aquaman 2, with Twitter user @TheComixKid speculating over the weekend that WB has no marketing budget for the superhero sequel.
@TheComixKid quote-retweeted another Twitter user @WhenBatmenFly, who said, ‘Aquaman 2 is coming out in 3 months and still no trailer. Why is no one panicking?’
@TheComixKid repsonded, ‘Because they know it’s bad, they know it’ll lose money, and they aren’t putting a marketing budget behind it at all.’
It’s unclear if @TheComixKid is just floating his own speculative ideas or if he’s citing industry sources about the movie’s marketing budget, or apparent lack thereof.
Another Twitter user, @NebsGoodTakes, shared the brief 30 seconds of footage that has been released thus far, though there still has been no publicly released trailer yet.
That 30 seconds of footage was part of a teaser for Warner Bros.’ then-2022 slate of DC Comics films from February 2022, when, at that time, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was slated for December 16, 2022.
