Posted in: Aquaman, Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: aquaman and the lost kingdom, dc studios, james wan, jason momoa, warner bros discovery

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Jason Momoa Wanted Arthur To Be A Father

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will explore the contrast between Arthur being a dad and being the King of Atlantis, an idea pitched by Jason Momoa himself.

When a sequel comes along, you always have to answer the question of where is the new place where your character is starting. In the first film, they began at point A and ended at point B. However, there is off-screen time that usually happens between the two films that we, the audience, don't see, so where the main characters start in the sequel isn't always point B. In the case of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, we missed quite a lot off-screen between the two films. That is probably not a bad decision since there has also been a pretty significant gap between the two films in the real world. Still, in the case of this story decision, we are missing something that is usually pretty central to character growth.

At the end of Aquaman, Arthur and Mera were cementing their relationship, and off-screen, they had become a stable enough couple to get married and have a child. That change in dynamic between two people is something other movies would spend an entire runtime on because that is a massive shift in someone's life. For Arthur, it's even bigger because he's going from thinking he knew his place in the world to having it wholly upended with new responsibilities placed on his head. The idea of Arthur becoming a dad and contrasting that massive change in his life with the change of becoming the King of Atlantis was an idea that star Jason Momoa pitched, according to director James Wan in an interview with ScreenRant.

"I like to say that Aquaman and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom play like part 1 and part 2," Wan explained. "That was how I approached it philosophically and emotionally. That meant that when we got to the end of the first movie, that's only the first half of Arthur's journey for me. I felt like there was still the second half of his journey. In the first movie, he was kind of lost and looking for his place in the world. At the end of the first movie, he discovered who he is and finally has a vision and a goal of where he needs to be and what he wants to do. We get to see that now in the second one, and that basically means that he's the King of Atlantis. He has duties by being the king of Atlantis; he has the stress of running a whole nation.

"And then, at the same time, he has fatherly duties as well." he continued. "We intercut with him changing diapers, dealing with coming home late at night and waking up the baby. That contrast was what Jason initially pitched to us, and I really love that because he really cares about where his character goes in the second film. I really respect it, and I really love that idea, so that's the direction that we're going into. And again, that's how the comic book was. In the comic book, he and Mera are the King and Queen of Atlantis, and they have a baby together. And then somehow, Black Manta gets into all of that."

While Wan does say that Arthur being a dad is a central part of this story, it still feels like we're skipping some massive chapters in the lives of our characters. The problem is that these missing chapters are very character-focused. We don't see Arthur and Mera settling into their relationship and what kind of relationship they grow into. We aren't exploring how their lives change when they find out she's pregnant. The movie could show us these moments, but if we see them, they are likely some montage at the beginning of the film that just catches the audience up on what they missed. Arthur being a dad is a good idea. That contrast is an interesting one, doubly so since Arthur wasn't raised Atlantean, so his concept of childhood is very different from Mera's and the rest of his people, but making Arthur a dad feels like a move for a third film, not a second one. Maybe the timeline got moved up when the writing on the DC Universe wall became apparent; we might not ever know.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Director James Wan and Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa—along with Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Nicole Kidman—return in the sequel to the highest-grossing DC film of all time: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father's death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time, Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman's family and the world from irreversible destruction.

All returning to the roles they originated, Jason Momoa plays Arthur Curry/Aquaman, now balancing his duties as both the King of Atlantis and a new father; Patrick Wilson is Orm, Aquaman's half-brother and his nemesis, who must now step into a new role as his brother's reluctant ally; Amber Heard is Mera, Atlantis' Queen and mother of the heir to the throne; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is Black Manta, committed more than ever to avenge his father's death by destroying Aquaman, his family and Atlantis; and Nicole Kidman as Atlanna, a fierce leader and mother with the heart of a warrior. Also reprising their roles are Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus and Randall Park as Dr. Stephen Shin.

Directed by Wan, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is produced by Peter Safran, Wan, and Rob Cowan. The executive producers are Galen Vaisman and Walter Hamada. The screenplay is by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, from a story by James Wan & David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Jason Momoa & Thomas Pa'a Sibbett, based on characters from DC, Aquaman created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger.

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents An Atomic Monster / A Peter Safran Production of A James Wan Film, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, set to open in theaters internationally beginning 20 December 2023 and in North America on December 22, 2023; it will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.

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