[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jameswan.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[Franchise/{{Saw}} Puppets]] [[Film/DeadSilence and]] [[Film/TheConjuring dolls]] [[Film/{{Insidious}} and demons]], [[AuthorPhobia oh my]].]]

James Wan (born 27 February 1977) is a Malaysian-born Australian film director, screenwriter and producer.

He first specialized in the {{horror}} genre before branching out on high-budget action/adventure films. In January 2019, he became the second director (after Creator/JamesCameron) to have two movies from different franchises gross a billion dollars: ''Film/Furious7'' and ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}''. He's also a prominent producer/executive producer at Creator/NewLineCinema.
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!!Filmography:
[[index]]
* ''Stygian'' (2000)
* ''Film/{{Saw|I}}'' (2004) (executive producer on all future installments)
* ''Film/DeadSilence'' (2007)
* ''Film/DeathSentence'' (2007)
* ''Film/{{Insidious}}'' (2010) (producer on all films after ''Chapter 2'')
** ''Insidious: Chapter 2'' (2013)
* Film/TheConjuringUniverse (producer on all installments except the first film)
** ''Film/TheConjuring'' (2013)
** ''Film/TheConjuring2'' (2016)
* ''Film/Furious7'' (2015)
* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse
** ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'' (2018)
** ''Film/AquamanAndTheLostKingdom'' (2023)
* ''Film/MortalKombat2021'' (producer)
* ''Film/{{Malignant}}'' (2021)
* ''Film/{{M3gan}}'' (2023) (producer, story by)
[[/index]]

!!Tropes:
* AuthorPhobia: Dolls and puppets show up in his more notable films.
* CreatorsOddball: As noted on that page, Wan got his start on [[Film/{{Saw|I}} low-budget]] [[Film/DeadSilence but profitable]] [[Film/{{Insidious}} horror]] [[Film/TheConjuring films]] before expanding to big-budget action/adventure blockbusters.
** ''Film/Furious7'' (2015): His highest-grossing film to date that relies heavily on CoolCars, CarFu, StuffBlowingUp, and RuleOfCool above all else.
** ''Film/Aquaman2018'': His ''second'' highest-grossing film to date that tackles the [[{{Superhero}} Superhero Genre]] with NarmCharm and enough SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome to spare.
** ''Film/MortalKombat2021'': A SupernaturalMartialArts film based on [[Franchise/MortalKombat a very popular video game franchise of the same name]] that is BloodierAndGorier than [[Film/MortalKombat1995 the previous film adaptation]] with extra buckets of {{Gorn}} to boot.
* CreatorThumbprint:
** Props from previous movies like the Billy puppet from ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' or the [[Film/TheConjuring Annabelle doll]] show up as {{Easter Egg}}s.
** Especially in his action films, the camera will follow along with a character being flipped.
** {{Creepy Doll}}s, as seen in ''Saw'', ''Dead Silence'', ''The Conjuring'', and ''[=M3GAN=]''. His Instagram handle is even [[https://www.instagram.com/creepypuppet/ "creepypuppet".]]
* NiceGuy: James is a very easygoing, happy-go-lucky, and passionate person in real life. He seems to get along well with the people he works with which may explain why he gets a lot of the same people on board for a lot of his projects.
* ProductionPosse: Of his six films in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, all but one featured Creator/PatrickWilson. Wan has also produced several more of Wilson’s films, including his upcoming directorial debut ''Insidious 5''.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: He was intended to serve as director of an American live-action ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' adaptation film, but was replaced by Creator/AndresMuschietti.
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