No red carpet, no premiere, minimal press, the press tour for “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom” is a rather sad ending to the DC Extended Universe [DCEU] first started by Zack Snyder with “Man Of Steel” in 2013. About 15 films in total, after many false starts and at least three studio regime changes in that time, all that continuity is being scrapped by what is now DC Studios, a new era of DC Films that is run by director James Gunn, producer Peter Safran and begins in summer 2025 with “Superman: Legacy.”
Audiences seem savvy enough to know this because, with little investment in the future, they have barely turned out for any DC superhero movies this year, “Shazam! Fury Of The God,” “The Flash,” and “Blue Beetle” were all colossal flops, seemingly setting the stage for Marvel’s biggest flop with “The Marvels.” With all this knowledge at hand, Warner Bros. has seemingly put limited time, money, and resources into this “Aquaman’ sequel (which is apparently not bad despite its flaws; read our review).
But the press tour is pretty depressing.
“It’s going to be sad because we’re going to be the end of the DCU, and it’s a whole new, you know, what 14 years of that whole universe… It was fun playing him,” Momoa told Fandango this week.
Is it truly the end for Momoa’s Aquaman? the interviewer asked. “I feel like it’s gonna be the last time I play Aquaman,” Momoa said bluntly, having already talked to James Gunn about it all.
Asked about his future in James Gunn’s upcoming rebooted DC Studios, there’s been talk of Momoa sticking around as the new character Lobo. And Momoa is all for it but isn’t sure it’ll happen. But when he first auditioned for director Zack Snyder way back when he was convinced he was auditioning for the Lobo character, Recounting his DCU origin story, Momoa was quite f**k it, blunt and revealed he almost bailed on his original audition for Batman.
“Well, I originally thought I was going to be playing Lobo because I was called in. I auditioned for Batman, and I almost didn’t do it,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘This is silly. It’s not gonna be me. Why am I auditioning for Batman?’ But it was just a run-of-the-mill audition. And then I got called in right after it was announced, and I was like, ‘ah f**k, of course, I’m gonna play the bad guy, cause I’m a big guy, I can kick the sh*t out of those two [Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill] and so I was like, ‘yeah, I’ll come in and beat ’em up and die like I do.’”
“And so, [Zack Snyder was like] do you know who you’re gonna play?” Momoa continued, recalling his first meeting with Zack Snyder for what would be a super brief appearance in “Batman Vs. Superman” then followed up by “Justice League.” “And I was like, ‘Lobo, of course, he’s the only one that can fight Batman and Superman,’ and [Zack] was like, ‘What? Lobo? He’s not in this universe,’ and I was like, ‘What? Who the hell am I supposed to play?’”
And when Snyder pitched him Aquaman, Momoa said his immediate reaction was a very unimpressed, ‘wtf?’, perhaps his memory of the character more familiar with the cheesy version in Saturday morning cartoons.
“I wish he woulda tapped it because he was like Aquaman, and I was like [puts on a sad trombone, very unimpressed face], ‘The f*ck are you talking about?’ And I was like, ‘How?’ and he… told me his vision. ‘You’re Polynesian, it would be like this, and you’re this mix, but you live in the ice, and you go to these places, you’re this traveler, and you’ll punch Batman in the face and kiss Wonder Woman, you’re like this renegade.’… And …you gotta give it to Zack; he dreamt up something really… he built this unbelievable character.”
Momoa says Lobo has always been his favorite character and said if they call, it’s an instant, “f*ck yeah, it’s a guarantee you don’t need to worry about that. But I haven’t received that call, so I don’t want to put out any fake news, but if they ever call me to ask him to play him or audition, I’m there.”
Watch the Fandango full interview with Momoa and Patrick Wilson below.
