Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom is just a few weeks away. The trailer of this movie is currently receiving mixed reactions from fans as this is officially the last movie of the DCEU without a future. Warner Bros and DC will not do marketing for this movie as both seem fairly uninterested in it.
This movie’s predecessor received a lot of love from its fans and grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, making it one of the most successful DC movies. This is the reason why Warner Bros greenlit a sequel. Nevertheless here’s everything you need to know about this movie:
Table of Contents
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom: Trailer
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom Plot
The plot of this movie is a revenge story for Black Manta. He was unable to defeat Aquaman and is now back to seek revenge for his father with the help of Black Trident. He overthrows Arthur from Atlantis and burns his home.
Black Manta wants to hurt Arthur Curry badly and destroys his home. Arthur is unable to withstand his strength and is forced to seek help from his brother Orm. Both then get back to Atlantis and fight to defeat Black Manta.
This movie may also adapt The Death of a Prince storyline where Aquaman’s son may get hurt. Here’s the official synopsis of this movie:
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.
The director of this movie James Wan that he drew inspiration from horror for this movie. Note that Wan directed one of the most popular horror franchise ‘The Conjuring’. The story for this movie is similar to 1960s cult horror film Planet of the Vampires.
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom Cast
The cast of this movie is mostly the same as it was for its predecessor.
- Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman
- Patrick Wilson as King Orm / Ocean Master
- Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as David Kane / Black Manta
- Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus
- Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry
- Nicole Kidman as Atlanna
- Jani Zhao as Stingray
- Amber Heard as Mera
- Vincent Regan as Atlan
- Randall Park as Dr. Stephen Shin
- Indya Moore as Karshon
When will Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom release?
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom releases on 22nd December 2023.
Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom New trailer proves that Arthur’s baby is going to die
If you watch the new trailer of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, you’ll get an idea about the plot of this movie. But what’s more important is that it proves the fact that Aquaman’s baby is definitely going to die in this movie.
As Black Manta gets his hands on the Black Trident, the curse of the “Dead King” gets onto him. In the new trailer you can see the “Dead King” telling Black Manta, “Free me from my prison and all my power will be yours.” Then there’s Atlanna telling “The key to his (Dead King’s) prison is the royal bloodline itself.”
The scene then cuts to Orm saying, “He(Black Manta) needs us, we’re the end of the royal bloodline”, to which Arthur replies, “No, we’re not.” He’s referencing his son. A couple of scenes later, there’s Tom Curry, possibly dying in Arthur’s arms while telling him, “He(Black Manta) took junior.”
Black Manta kidnapped Arthur’s son for sacrifice so that the “Dead King” is free from his prison and can grant Manta all the powers he needs to take over Atlantis.
How many post credit scenes will Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have?
This movie will have least 1 post credit scene. This year’s DC movies Shazam: Fury of The Gods, Flash and Blue Beetle had post credit scenes even though their future is unclear. Aquaman 2 will also have a post credit scene.
Initially, when the movie was in draft there was a post credit scene of Batman and Aquaman discussing another upcoming danger. Batman was going to warn Aquaman about something or someone poisoning the oceans. This would set up a future storyline for Arthur Curry.
However, it’s unclear which version of Batman was supposed to show up. But James Gunn and Peter Safran didn’t want DC fans to have their hopes up, so this scene was scraped.
Will Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom surpass the success of Aquaman 1?
Probably not. Here’s how much the recent DCEU movies have lost:
- Black Adam – $100 Million
- Shazam 2 – $150 Million
- The Flash – $200 Million
Blue Beetle barely managed to break even. A point to note, is that none of these movies were bad enough to lose such a large amount of money. For Aquaman and the last kingdom to surpass its predecessor it has to collect more than 1.5 Billion which is next to impossible considering the state DC is in.
Related: DCEU drops Henry Cavill from role of Superman
There are 3 major reasons for this:
1 – DCEU is being rebooted to DCU
What’s the point of watching a comic book movie if the character has no future moving forward? People who are not among the DC’s loyal fan base will be asking themselves this question and might not be willing to watch this movie.
Besides this, James Gunn given a statement recently in which he has made it clear that nothing in his DCU will be canon until ‘Creature Commandos’ and ‘Superman Legacy.’ Basically Gunn showed middle finger to every DC movie including Aquaman 2.
The only reason Warner Bros is going ahead with this movie is if they didn’t then they would incur more loss. What’s better? Losing $305 Million or $150 Million? I would choose the later.
2 – Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom test screenings viewers walked out
The viewers who were invited to the screening of this movie walked out mid-way through the film. The reason for this is unknown. However, fans speculate that Arthur Curry’s son dies in this movie and that is the reason why viewers walked out.
In the comics, Black Manta kills Arthur’s son and believe that Arthur’s character arc in the movie will also be similar.
This is a controversial storyline for DC to adapt and may prove to be the final nail in the coffin for DCEU. Die hard DC fans may love Warner Bros’ commitment to the comics but general audience might find the dying of a baby disappointing.
3 – Poor Marketing Campaign
Even with a strong Marketing campaign like Black Adam, the movie was a flop. With zero to no marketing the other DCEU movies that came out this year, also incurred loss.
Aquaman 2 is no exception. Although, it has a $100 Million Marketing budget, if James Gunn himself is not willing to market this movie, will people watch it? Think of it this way, if Tim Cook is not willing to use iPhone, can people be convinced that iPhone is good?
I’m not even touching on the fact that Warner Bros still decided to keep Amber Heard in this movie even after all the court room drama involving her and Johnny Depp.
Whatever the future of DC, you should show some love to the comic book movies and go to watch Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom in cinemas.
This is most probably Jason Momoa’s last performance ad Aquaman. James Gunn might not even want to introduce Aquaman in his DCU.