You don’t have to hold your breath
“Aquaman” details are bubbling up.
SAN DIEGO – “Aquaman” director James Wan is on a yacht, smiling and sitting next to a toy of himself and a mini-wall of Jason Momoa action figures. Things couldn’t be going any more swimmingly for him here at geek culture extravaganza Comic-Con.
“Coming to Comic-Con with a comicbook movie at this level is pretty much as big as you can get, right?” he says.
While “Justice League” introduced reluctant hero Arthur Curry (Momoa) into the world of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, the DC superhero epic “Aquaman” (in theaters Dec. 21) sends him on his own solo hero’s journey. He’s figuring out his place between the surface world of his father, lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison), and the underwater landscape of his mother, Queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) of Atlantis. He also has a major foil in his half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson), whose nefarious plans threaten the entire Earth.
Five things “Aqua”-fans need to know:
1 Aquaman is a fish out of water. (Pun intended.)
Last time we saw Arthur, he was surfing on the Batmobile and saving the world in “Justice League.” And that’s where we pick it up in terms of his gruff personality, Wan says. “He doesn’t really care about what’s happening around him necessarily, but there’s a greater calling where he has to go and deal with it. Part of the fun of the movie is actually watching this guy who doesn’t feel like he fits into anything just go along on the journey because he has to.”
2 Our hero’s not as hotheaded as his love interest.
Audiences briefly met Atlantean warrior Mera (Amber Heard) in Atlantis in “Justice League,” and with her and Arthur, opposites attract. “They’re slowly learning to respect each other’s cultures,” Wan says. “She’s very educated and very prim and proper, but she also has this attitude toward the surface world. She doesn’t think too highly of us. And then there’s Arthur, who because of something that happened to his family a long time ago has a chip on his shoulder.” And Mera is definitely not a damsel in distress: “She’s as powerful as Aquaman – actually, if anything, she’s more powerful.”
3 Nicole Kidman is a classy superhero mom.
Wan uses words like “amazing” and “beautiful” to describe his A-lister, whose queen – the mom Arthur never knew – is the emotional backbone and driving force of “Aquaman.” “She’s not in the movie a lot, but her presence is felt very strongly,” Wan says. “What happened to her basically shapes Arthur’s outlook on life, and especially with the people of Atlantis. That’s a part of the reason why his character starts out somewhat disgruntled and grumpy about the world he’s supposed to be the king of but has no interest in.”
4 Black Manta isn’t the main villain (but is still awesome).
Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is the archvillain for Aquaman in the comics, but he takes a backseat to Orm in “Aquaman,” which shows how highseas pirate David Kane becomes Manta and sets him up for later stories. “I don’t think you can make an Aquaman movie and not touch on Black Manta. Fans would kill me,” Wan says. Emphasizing Orm “felt organically correct” as Arthur’s primary foil. “Even though Atlantis is very advanced and years ahead of us in technological advancement, there’s also a very old-school, almost archaic philosophy to a lot of things.”
5 The deep sea contains a deep message.
Wan wanted to lean into Aquaman never feeling he belongs in Atlantis or on the surface, “but he discovers that he is the best of both worlds, and it’s actually OK to be a half-breed, so to speak. As the world we live in gets smaller, you meet so many people, and no one’s really black or white anymore. A lot of us are in between. It’s so great for today’s kids to grow up and say, ‘Oh, wow, there’s a brown superhero up there who looks like me and is different.’ ” He points to “Black Panther” being able to capture “that movement and spirit, and ‘Aquaman’ lets Jason really embrace his half-Polynesian (heritage). People are ready to see a superhero who is more than just a white guy or a white girl.”