When it comes to the Snyder-verse DCEU box office, no-one comes close to James Wan’s “Aquaman” which pulled in an astonishing $1.15 billion at the global box office. People aren’t making fun of the orange and green-suited fish man anymore.
This year sees the release of the follow-up “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” which will now officially serve as the last of the DCEU films before it’s all swept aside for the James Gunn/Peter Safran DCU films starting in 2025.
Back in January at Sundance, the film’s star Jason Momoa revealed that he wrote a fifty-page treatment for the sequel, which featured him among other things, “talking to the U.N. about what’s happening with the melting ice caps”.
Now, in a more recent interview with Men’s Health, Momoa says that treatment mostly went out the window and it’s partly why he wants to get more into the making of these movies:
“That’s the reason why I love directing and creating… 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 f—?’ I watched this guy who had to be f—— propped up. They read the lines to him. But this motherf—– killed it when the edit came in and was applauded for it. At that point, I was like, ‘Wow, this s— is made in the edit.'”
He says to this day, the 2018 film’s success still confuses him and he’s not sure why it caught on the way it did:
“Well, to be perfectly honest, I was absolutely baffled that ‘Aquaman’ was received so well. I’ve done things that are amazing that no one sees and no one gives a s— 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. 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.”
He adds to the outlet that he’s “extremely, extremely excited” about his future with DC. Indeed, he has Peter Safran in his corner as the producer, and new DC co-chief says that even if they opt to recast Aquaman, expect Momoa to be hanging around at DC in some capacity:
“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. There are few superhero castings that are more perfect than Momoa as Aquaman.”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” hits cinemas on December 20th.
