He might be a key part of the Justice League, but Aquaman is less well known than fellow DC heroes Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. But with Justice League and a standalone movie all due in the next few years, this is about to change. Now Aquaman director James Wan has revealed why he chose to take the movie on.

In an interview with Upprox, Wan explained that he was initially offered both The Flash and Aquaman, but decided on the latter. “The thing that ultimately pushed me more towards Aquaman is I love the possibility of creating a whole new world,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to do a world creation story and visually create this amazing, incredible, magical kingdom.

“And also, I love the fact that Aquaman is an underdog character. I love the fact that people like to make fun of him. I feel the bar is a lot lower and I can have fun with him!

“What it allows me to do: I think people are a lot less precious with him than, let’s say, you were doing a Spider-Man or a Batman or whatever.”

Aquaman will star Jason Mamoa as the King of Atlantis, while Amber Heard is to portray Mera, the Queen of Sea. Wan is best known for the the likes of Furious 7 and The Conjuring, and his latest film The Conjuring 2 hits theaters later this month.

In other DC news, it was reported last week that The Flash had found a new director. Rick Famuyiwa, who made the acclaimed comedy Dope, will helm the 2018 release, replacing Seth Grahame-Smith who exited the project in May.

Aquaman is released on July 27, 2018, while Justice League and The Flash come to theaters on November 17, 2017 and March 16, 2018 respectively.