Exclusive: James Wan reveals that it was none other than Jason Momoa himself who pitched the idea for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to make him a dad.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom director James Wan opens up on how Jason Momoa had a huge involvement with the DCEU sequel. After running for a decade, the DCEU timeline is finishing its run this month with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom wrapping up the franchise for good. Momoa is suiting up as Arthur Curry one last time before he moves over to James Gunn’s DC Universe as a new-yet-to-be-revealed character.

While the journey to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s release has been a long one, the DCEU finale is only weeks away from opening in theaters. In an exclusive Screen Rant interview with Wan himself, the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom director talked about the fatherhood storyline that will serve as a centerpiece in the new film. According to Wan, Momoa pitched the arc himself as he wanted to see Arthur be explored as a dad by introducing his son from the comics, sharing the following:
I like to say that Aquaman and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom play like part 1 and part 2. That was how I approached it philosophically and emotionally. That meant that when we got to the end of the first movie, that’s only the first half of Arthur’s journey for me. I felt like there was still the second half of his journey.

In the first movie, he was kind of lost and looking for his place in the world. At the end of the first movie, he discovered who he is and finally has a vision and a goal of where he needs to be and what he wants to do. We get to see that now in the second one, and that basically means that he’s the King of Atlantis. He has duties by being the king of Atlantis; he has the stress of running a whole nation.

And then at the same time, he has fatherly duties as well. We intercut with him changing diapers; dealing with coming home late at night and waking up the baby. That contrast was what Jason initially pitched to us, and I really love that because he really cares about where his character goes in the second film. I really respect it, and I really love that idea, so that’s the direction that we’re going into.

And again, that’s how the comic book was. In the comic book, he and Mera are the King and Queen of Atlantis, and they have a baby together. And then somehow, Black Manta gets into all of that.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is set to feature a large cast of both new and returning characters, the final film ahead of the imminent DCU reboot.

Is Aquaman 2 Setting Up One Of The DCEU’s Darkest Storylines?

As fun as it will be to see this new side of Arthur, there is also the dark notion of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom perhaps adapting one of the grimmer storylines from Arthur’s mythology. While he was introduced back in October 1965, Arthur Curry Jr., a.k.a. Aquababy, faced a tragic fate as Black Manta ended up killing the child of Aquaman and Mera. Black Manta is the big bad for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and if the trailers have proven anything, he is not holding back in wanting to destroy Arthur’s life.

This would be one way to up the stakes from the first Aquaman movie, by having Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom put Arthur and Mera through a massive loss. But at the same time, this might be a step too dark even for the DCEU, especially as 2018’s Aquaman was a major success due to its family-friendly tone. Since Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was never planned to be the last movie for the DCEU, it begs the question of whether a potential death for Aquababy would be done to lead into a hypothetical Aquaman 3 where Arthur and Mera have to deal with either losing or rescuing their son.

Outside of Momoa, no one from the Aquaman movies is expected to play new roles in Gunn’s DC Universe.

It is also possible that all of the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom trailers are purposely trying to mislead the audience into thinking that something dark is on the horizon. Time will tell if Aquababy makes it out alive by the end of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, or if someone else in Arthur’s life gets killed instead. Given the massive history between Arthur and Black Manta, whatever goes down between them, collateral damage is expected at this point.