Arthur Curry is ready for his second coming.
After placing the spotlight on X-Men: Dark Phoenix earlier this morning, Entertainment Weekly has now shifted the focus over to the fledgling DC Extended Universe and, more specifically, Aquaman.
The James Wan-directed solo movie is still an awful long way away – December 21st, 2018 is the date for your diaries – but now that principal photography has wrapped, the Powers That Be are ready to offer a glimpse of what’s to come. Even if it is only a glimpse.
And so, that marketing campaign kicks off today with a close-up of Jason Momoa’s hulking Atlanean striding toward the camera. Based on James Wan’s previous set photos, we’re inclined to believe that this action shot was captured on a submarine, as Arthur Curry confronts an off-screen baddie…or a leaking pipe. One thing’s for sure: compared to Justice League, it’ll be a “totally different beast.”
“Justice League was only a weekend in Arthur Curry’s life. This is a totally different beast,” says Momoa. “In Aquaman, you see when his parents met and what happened to hem. Then the little boy being raised and finding his powers and going through that and never being accepted on either side. And then becoming this man who puts up all these walls. You just slowly see this man harden up and be completely reluctant wanting to be king and not knowing what to do with these powers he has. I think James Wan just killed it.”
Said to more akin to a horror movie than anything else – hardly surprising, given James Wan’s résumé – Aquaman will be unlike any other DC movie we’ve seen before. That’s something that Wan himself reiterated while talking to EW, stating that his upcoming standalone pic is more of a traditional “action-adventure quest movie.” Sign us up.
It’s going to look very different, it will feel very different — aesthetically, tonally, story-wise — it’s my own take. It’s a much more a traditional action-adventure quest movie.
Aquaman docks in theaters on December 21st, 2018. And for the first time in four years, next Christmas will be completely Star Wars free, as Lucasfilm has angled Solo: A Star Wars Story for release on May 25th.