Even before Warner Bros. started doing the next one Aquaman sequel, they gave the green light to a spin-off film called The trench, which was supposed to involve the monstrous underwater creatures that appeared in one of the movie’s action sequences and attacked Jason Momoa’s Justice Leaguer.

It seemed like a strange concept for a DC Comics movie; the creatures of the trenches were barely in Aquaman, and unless you turn the concept into an outright horror movie, they really weren’t going to support an entire story. (Here is their big scene in Aquaman.)

It wasn’t very surprising when Warner Bros. decided to cancel the project early this year. But now it seems that The trench the title wasn’t the whole story. In a recent post on her Instagram, Aquaman director James Wan has revealed that the Trench the movie was actually more than it looked. “I’m going to let you in on a secret,” Wan wrote, “the canceled Trench spin-off was really going to be a secret Black Manta movie.”

Suddenly The trench makes a lot more sense, as it could have starred Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who played Black Manta in Aquaman. At least you will see Abdul-Mateen as a character in the Aquaman sequel – and this time wearing a version of the character’s costume that’s much closer to her iconic comic book look than the one that appeared in the first one Aquaman film in 2018.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to open in theaters on December 16, 2022.