By Ben Travis, Dan Jolin | Posted 27 Nov 2018

For its first run of movies, the DC Extended Universe plumped for a dark and moody colour palette, with sets decked out in muted hues and toned-down costumes for its heroes. Well, that’s all out of the picture for Aquaman – James Wan has decked out his underwater adventure in all kinds of turquoise, cerulean, ultra-marine, and every other shade of blue under the sea. And that’s not just a visual choice, it’s reflective of the movie’s out-there tone, bringing armored seahorses, bug-eyed villain Black Manta, and Jason Momoa in Aquaman’s classic orange costume to the big screen. We’ve got two exclusive new images, as seen in the upcoming January 2019 issue of Empire, giving a colourful new look at DC’s fantasy epic.

First up, here’s Aquaman, aka Arthur Curry, all tooled up with his five-pronged trident (quint-dent?) and roaring into action.

And secondly, here he is facing off against Patrick Wilson’s Orm, Arthur’s half-brother intent on waging war against us landlubbers.

For Wan, who’s often to be found playing with dark, scary, creepy things as the creator of Saw and The Conjuring, it’s a chance to further flex his blockbuster muscles following Fast & Furious 7. “Obviously I loved the movies of George Lucas and Spielberg,” he tells Empire. “This movie is my embrace of all the filmmakers I grew up loving; those sort of Spielberg-inspired wonderment movies from the ‘80s …] I finally get the chance to design some really fantastic worlds, the kind you’re used to seeing in [Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings.”

Read more about Aquaman in the upcoming January 2019 issue of Empire, on newsstands from Thursday 29 November.

Keep up to date with all the latest movie news, click here to subscribe to Empire on Great Magazines and have the latest issue delivered to your door every month.