James Wan has teased details about the highly-anticipated Aquaman 2, citing obscure cult flick Planet Of The Vampires as a key inspiration.

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The director, known for helming horror flicks The Conjuring and Insidious, will return to direct the DC sequel officially titled Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom.

Speaking to TotalFilm magazine, Wan said: “Aquaman 2 is very heavily inspired by Planet Of The Vampires. You can take the boy out of horror but you can never take the horror out of the boy.”

Planet Of The Vampires is a campy 1965 Italian science fiction horror film by Mario Bava, where two spaceships crash on an unexplored planet only for a bizarre evil to possess the dead bodies of the crew. It’s believed to have been a major influence on Ridley Scott’s Alien and Prometheus.

As far as Aquaman 2 goes, it sounds like Wan is ready to take the underwater superhero into darker territory, as teased in the Trench sequence from the first film.

Wan added: “Well, the first movie took a lot of people by surprise, right? And that’s partially because they were not familiar with the comic book, which deals in this very lurid strange world.

“People were taken aback that I didn’t throw all that stuff away and make a dark, heavy film. But I didn’t feel that would have been right for it. So with the second film, I feel it will be easier for people to accept where we go because I’ve already laid the foundation.”

Jason Momoa and Amber Heard will return as Aquaman and Mera respectively, alongside Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Temuera Morrison. Game Of Thrones actor Pilou Asbaek, known for playing Euron Greyjoy, is also in talks to star.

Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is scheduled to be released December 16, 2022.