‘Aquaman’ Debuts A Bonkers New Poster To Go With Its ‘Less Dark’ Tone

There are a lot of questions surrounding Aquaman, which is probably the last movie anybody expected from the current superhero boom. True, a lot of more obscure characters, like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, have ridden the superhero wave into theaters, but Aquaman was best known as the Superfriends guy who talks to fish. How was James Wan, best known for car chases and creepy horror, going to turn such an unusual character into a full-fledged movie? A new poster, dropped ahead of the trailer coming this Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con, hints at the tone.

Kudos to the great white for being the only one who notices that, hey, that’s Jason Momoa! The poster arrives right on the heels of a Collider article about a visit to the movie’s set, and Wan, it turns out, isn’t overpromising. Two-thirds of the movie is underwater, and what’s more, it’s leaning hard into the fact that it’s a movie about a superhero fighting for the crown of a fantasy realm, taking place after the events of Justice League:

When Warner Bros. and DC gave Wan Aquaman, [Wan] envisioned Aquaman as a Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone type movie where you would have great characters, real jeopardy, and great elements of comedy between Arthur and Mera… When they were making Justice League, the production spoke to James Wan about what he wanted to reveal in Aquaman. That’s why Atlantis was never seen before Aquaman. Also, when they did reshoots on Justice League, they constantly spoke to Wan to make sure everyone was on the same page and the things that were important to Wan were always protected.

The article goes on to reveal that this movie, which is a stand-alone film, may not have any other DC heroes in it; that there’s a kingdom of lobster people; that Wan has a sequence that pays tribute to The Creature From The Black Lagoon; that the notorious orange shirt will turn up; and that Orm, Aquaman’s brother and the main bad guy, doesn’t want to conquer the surface world, he’s just sick of our garbage, as in literally. Since we won’t stop spilling oil, acidifying the oceans, and otherwise destroying Atlantis’ sovereign territory, Orm’s coming to wipe us out. And, of course, there’s a full-on gladiator fight because, hey, you don’t cast a guy who’s played both Khal Drogo and Conan the Barbarian and not give him a sword. That’s just ridiculous. The only question we want answered, though, is whether the musical Momoa will finally get to sing Aquaman’s stirring paen to heroism. We’re guessing not, but we’ll find out December 21st.

(via Collider)