Aquaman director James Wan has promised that the upcoming sequel will be "more serious" and "more relevant" than the first.
The superhero film, starring Jason Mamoa in the lead role, brought in $1.1 billion (£877 million) at the worldwide box office upon its release in 2018 to rank as the highest-grossing movie in the DC Extended Universe.
A sequel is in the works for release in December 2022 and, speaking at DC's FanDome event on Saturday, Wan shared more details of a change in direction.
"I'm excited to continue the journeys of our heroes, and antiheroes for that matter, and to continue to expand on the world with number two," he said.
"Try to do new things I didn't get around to on the first film. Try something fresh. And the second one, I would say, is a little more serious, a little more relevant in the world we're living in today. And I think that's kind of where it wants to go."
Patrick Wilson, who starred as Aquaman's half-brother Ocean Master, added: "I'm excited for some new worlds, hopefully. I'm just throwing that out there, because I know you love world-building. I'd like to see where we could go. There's a lot of unexplored ocean out there, anyway. We only got 5% of the ocean."
As well as the sequel, a spinoff movie called The Trench focusing on the monsters from the first film is also in development.
