James Wan‘s “Aquaman” was far and away the most successful film of the old DCEU, making $1.15 billion at the global box office. So it’s safe to expect that its sequel, “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom,” due in theaters this Christmas, will also take in a huge haul. How’s that for a send-off before DC Studios reboots its franchises?
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But according to Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, the upcoming film isn’t exactly what he planned on. Variety reports (via Men’s Health) that Momoa wrote a 50-page treatment for the sequel, but the entire thing wasn’t followed completely. “The beautiful thing [about “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”] is me and my partner wrote the first treatment for it and it was about a 50-page treatment, and a lot of it has to deal with me talking to the U.N. about what’s happening with the melting ice caps,” the actor told Variety at the Sundance Film Festival. “There’s no far off galaxy coming to destroy us or aliens from another place. It’s us ruining our planet. We need to get it together and save our home.”
But Momoa’s new interview in Men’s Health elaborates that Wan and Warner Bros. didn’t follow that idea entirely. “That’s the reason why I love directing and creating,” Momoa told the magazine. “I don’t wanna just go like, ‘I’m acting. I’ll be in my trailer.’ I love being able to burn for what I believe in. I’ve seen some of the most shocking acting performances firsthand and watched them edited, and they were amazing. I wish I could tell you who it was. I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ I watched this guy who had to be fucking propped up. They read the lines to him. But this motherfucker killed it when the edit came in and was applauded for it. At that point, I was like, ‘Wow, this shit is made in the edit.’”
One wonders who the actor in that anecdote is, and whether that story happened on an “Aquaman” set. As for the franchise’s success, it still confuses Momoa a bit. “Well, to be perfectly honest, I was absolutely baffled that ‘Aquaman’ was received so well,” the actor said about the 2018 film’s success. “I’ve done things that are amazing that no one sees and no one gives a shit about. You just don’t know in this business. I don’t go do things and think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get $1 billion on this one.’ I go in and do my best job.”
“It’s not that I don’t care about Aquaman; it’s a wonderful character,” Momoa continued. “Aquaman is probably the hardest character in comic-book history. He’s made fun of and ridiculed, but I tried to give it heart and soul, and I’m proud of it in certain ways. Do I feel pressure for [the sequel] to do well? No. All I can do is give it my all. But it’s in a lot of other people’s hands.”
As for Aquaman’s future in the new DCEU? Momoa is confident he’ll be part of it somehow, telling Total Film last month that he thinks Aquaman will “definitely” be part of James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s upcoming plans. He also told Men’s Health that he’s “extremely, extremely excited” about his future with DC, and promises “a lot of badass shit coming up” in “Gods And Monsters.” But will Momoa continue on as Aquaman? Peter Safran had this to say: “I look forward to working with Jason for many years to come. I would be happy for it to be in Arthur Curry’s world, but if/when another opportunity came up, I’d find another great character for him to create.”
Maybe those Momoa as Lobo rumors aren’t that unfounded. In any event, “Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom” hits theaters on December 20.
