What with the first Aquaman trailer due to arrive this Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con – I mean, James Wan did confirm as much – and having already made a big splash this week on account of an epic new poster, July is shaping up to be the busiest month thus far for Jason Momoa’s titular Human-Atlantean Hybrid, and news out of the sunken kingdom is that Arthur Curry’s schedule just got a lot more hectic.
If you recall, last month we had it on competent authority that founding father Zack Snyder might’ve divulged the plot of Aquaman nearly a year and a half ago while promoting his much-maligned superhero feature, Justice League. Long story short, an old poster from the film, on which the aquatic hero stood formidably, was accompanied by the text overlay “Unite The Seven.” Now, at the time, many assumed the one-sheet was referring to the so-called supergroup, but in actuality, the innuendo alluded to Arthur Curry’s attempt at unifying the Seven Great Cities of Atlantis.
Granted, this was all just hearsay until the director of Aquaman himself, the aforementioned James Wan, seemingly corroborated the fan theory. Last week, Entertainment Weekly provided us with our first look at the Fisherman King, and in response to the image, Wan Tweeted the following: “Always looking for a reason to work with the highly evolved Djimon Hounsou again. #oneofthesevenkingdoms.” Now, if that doesn’t serve as validation, I don’t know what does.
If you’re in need of further proof, though, production designer Bill Brzeski has lent credence to the unifying of the Seven Great Cities of Atlantis and the part it’ll play in the forthcoming feature. During a sit-down with CinemaBlend, Brzeski provided an important clue regarding the plot of Aquaman, saying:
“This is a complicated story. It’s not just like you go to Atlantis, and it’s Atlantis… Atlantis fell into the ocean about 5,000 years ago, and it morphed into seven different kingdoms. So, when you go to the movie, you’ve got Trench people; you’ve got Brine people; you have Xebellian people; you have the Fisherman Kingdom; you have The Missing Kingdom, and you have the Atlanteans.”
“So, the storyline, if you saw on the internet, it says ‘Unite the seven.’ Really, what that’s about for Orm, who is the king of Atlantis, he’s the half-brother to Aquaman, is to take control and become an “Ocean Master”… He has to unite the seven kingdoms, so you have to have this quorum to really get things going down there.”
With the plot seemingly in place, now, and Jason Momoa all set to play our disinclined King – alongside Amber Heard, who’ll be portraying his wife Mera, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the villain, Black Manta, of course – it would appear all that’s left for Aquaman to do is swim into theaters, which it will on December 21st later this year.
