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SDCC 2018: Aquaman Release Date, Cast, And What We Know So Far

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Everything we know about DC's newest standalone movie.

So far, the only heroes who have gotten standalone movies in the current DCEU are Superman and Wonder Woman, and this winter, Aquaman will be joining the club. Aquaman made his first big-screen appearance in a brief cameo in Batman Vs. Superman before featuring heavily in Justice League alongside the rest of the DC super-squad.

The upcoming film will focus completely on Aquaman's world. Warner Bros. finished with principal photography in October 2017, and though DC has yet to release any trailers for their latest film, we do have some information about what it might look like. We recently got the first poster, and it looks like a trailer will show up at San Diego Comic-Con 2018, hopefully along with a bunch of new information. Here's a look at what we know so far, as well as what we're hoping to get a look at during SDCC.

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What It's About

The Aquaman movie will follow Arthur Curry as he reluctantly assumes the throne of Atlantis. He will be facing off with his half-brother, King Orm, who is upset about not getting to succeed to his father's to the throne. The larger task at hand, though, is stopping a war between the human world and the undersea world, which could end up destroying both. Black Manta will also factor in on the villain side of things, but the studio is being very tight lipped about the context for this.

The film is based on the Aquaman character from the comic book series, written by Mort Weisinger and illustrated by Paul Norris. Aquaman first appeared in a 1941 issue of More Fun Comics, before getting his own comic book series. In the comics, he also grew up as a normal human before getting the throne of Atlantis thrust upon him, displacing his disgruntled half brother. He became extra famous for being a founding member of the Justice League and getting an animated series in the 1950s.

Who's Who

Crew

-The film is directed by James Wan, whose repertoire includes a whole lot of horror films like The Conjuring franchise, the Insidious franchise, and the Saw franchise. Looks like we might be in for a creepy version of Aquaman. Then again, he also directed Furious 7, so who knows?

- The screenplay was written by Will Beall, who is also credited with writing the first draft of Justice League before being replaced. Technically, he was replaced for Aquaman as well, but he was brought back in the end.

-James Wan and Geoff Johns worked on the the story together. Geoff Johns was the Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment until he stepped down in 2018 to focus on writing and producing DC film and television projects.

Cast

-The long-haired muscle machine by the name of Jason Momoa, who we first saw in Game of Thrones as Khal Drogo back in Season 1, will of course be gracing our screens once again as the stoic but powerful Aquaman. His given name is Arthur Curry, a half-human, half-Atlantean heir to the throne of Atlantis who has super strength, super speed (but only when he's swimming), and the ability to communicate with marine-life.

-King Orm AKA Ocean Master will be played by Patrick Wilson and act as Aquaman's principal enemy in the movie. Orm is Aquaman's half brother, but because he is younger, Aquaman succeeds the throne and Orm is not happy about it.

-Black Manta, Aquaman's arch nemesis in the comics, will be played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen. He's in the beginning stages of his villain journey, so he isn't quite the fully fledged Black Manta that we know from the comics yet, but he will factor into the plot in some way.

-Amber Heard will be playing the role of Mera, a warrior princess who has been groomed by Queen Atlanna to take over as queen.

-Nicole Kidman will be playing Queen Atlanna, Aquaman's mother.

-Willem Dafoe will play Nuidis Vulko, an advisor and mentor to Aquaman. Interestingly enough, his character was set to appear in Justice League, but his part was cut because of time constraints.

What's Been Released So Far

There have been no trailers released, but we already have a decent idea of what the underwater world will look like from cast photos and from the glimpse we got in Justice League. Aquaman was featured pretty heavily in the movie and even ventured down to Atlantis, giving us an idea at what the city looks like, as well as the people who live there.

Atlantis was something of a murky city, with algae and barnacles growing on everything. Keep in mind though, that this is Zack Snyder's version of the underwater metropolis; James Wan has yet to put his spin on it.

The people who lived in Atlantis were like merpeople, minus the tails. They had some scales and trippy eyes, but generally had the appearance of human beings. The cast photos released by Entertainment Weekly feature lots of good action shots, with Amber Heard in a scaly swimsuit and Momoa rarely wearing a shit. They required air bubbles to speak in Justice League, but Aquaman director James Wan has already said that no air bubbles will be necessary for communication in the upcoming movie.

Beyond that, we have gotten a poster and trailer tease that offer some looks at the movie version of all of this. Wan also shared some insight into the difficulties of filming an underwater movie like this.

What We Want At Comic-Con

The only thing that we're sure about is that the first Aquaman trailer will be coming to Comic-Con Saturday, July 21. Warner Bros. released some footage from the film at CinemaCon, but the trailer is bound to give us some more information.

The trailer is looking like it will be full-length, as opposed to a teaser, so hopefully, we'll get a better look into Aquaman's world; what Wan's version of Atlantis looks like, what Aquaman will look like as King of Atlantis, how some of the underwater action sequences will play out, etc.

In a perfect world, we would love to see director James Wan, story creator Geoff Johns, and Jason Momoa, as well as the rest of the cast, in a panel at Comic-Con. It would also be great to find out more information about how Black Manta fits into all this because that's a giant mystery right now. A better look at his suit in particular would be really cool.

Aquaman's release date is set for December 21, 2018 but until then, we will have to wait until this year's Comic-Con.

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