King of the seas! Aquaman, a.k.a. Arthur Curry, is finally headed back to the big screen — and he’s doing it in a whole new wardrobe.
In September 2021, Jason Momoa revealed that his superhero suit got a major upgrade for Aquaman 2, officially titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. “Second round. New suit. More action,” the Game of Thrones alum wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of himself in the outfit, which is solid blue with dark silver accents. (His suit in the first movie was yellow-orange and green, as it was in the early Aquaman comics.)
Arthur’s garb isn’t the only thing changing in the second movie, which is set to hit theaters in December 2022. Director James Wan, who also helmed the first film, has said that the tone of the sequel is a bit darker than that of the 2018 original.
“The second one is a little bit more serious, a little more relevant to the world we’re living in today,” the Conjuring director said during an August 2020 panel discussion. “That’s where it wants to go.”
In a separate interview, Wan pointed to a classic horror movie as one of his major inspirations for The Lost Kingdom. “Aquaman 2 is very heavily inspired by Planet of the Vampires,” he told Total Film in August 2021, referencing Mario Bava’s 1965 movie. “You can take the boy out of horror, but you can never take the horror out the boy.”
It might seem like an odd choice for Aquaman, but Wan is most known for his work on horror franchises including The Conjuring, Saw and Insidious. And while Arthur Curry’s Atlantis isn’t exactly spooky, it’s definitely weird — people ride sharks there, after all.
Momoa, for his part, has insisted that the new film has more humor than the first one, which was an unusually funny standout in the often dark world of movies inspired by DC Comics. “This time around, I feel like we’re pulling out all of the stops, buddy,” the Dune actor told Fandango in September 2021. “Even on the page, it’s absolutely wonderful. There is so much going on. I think the stakes are a lot higher. There’s a lot of comedy. So, I mean, I giggled reading [the script].”
Whether The Lost Kingdom leans more toward comedy or horror, it’s clear there’ll be tons of action — and perhaps more shark-riding. Keep scrolling for everything we know so far about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: