Jason Momoa has turned out to be one of the crucial stars in Warner Bros.’ talent list. The actor is the face of the Aquaman franchise, and played Paul Atreides’ friend/mentor Duncan Idaho in Oscar-winning Dune, along with being slated for upcoming titles like Minecraft. Even when the regime changed and most of his DCEU colleagues ended their superhero run, he’s hyping up some mystery character James Gunn and Peter Safran have in store for him. In a new interview with Mens Health, the actor spoke about the upcoming Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom as well as his experience building the character over the years.

“Aquaman is probably the hardest character in comic-book history. He’s made fun of and ridiculed, but I tried to give it heart and soul, and I’m proud of it in certain ways,” Momoa says of playing the half-Atlantean half-human on the big screen. He admitted that the billion-dollar box office success of the original feature “baffled” him.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has been long in making, helmed by horror genius James Wan, the underwater world looks fascinating in previously teased photos and a newly released trailer at CinemaCon. However, the movie has been delayed several times first due to the pandemic then due to the Warner Bros Discovery merger, and is due out at the end of the year. “Do I feel pressure for [the sequel] to do well? No. All I can do is give it my all. But it’s in a lot of other people’s hands,” he says of the sequel.

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The actor admits to feeling frustrated and bitter about the way Arthur Curry has been treated, referring to the turbulence of “different directors having different ideas of who Aquaman is.” Momoa started playing the character under Zack Snyder’s vision, then Joss Whedon took over the Justice League, then Wan took over the standalone feature. But more specifically, because of the 50-page treatment he and Brian Mendoza wrote for the sequel, the star divulged, “Warner Bros. bought but did not follow completely” which bugs him and spins him into an impassioned, salty riff.

Momoa’s DC Future
“Yeah. I don’t wanna just go like, ‘I’m acting. I’ll be in my trailer.’ I love being able to burn for what I believe in,” he says. But since the hierarchy of DC management has changed considerably and Momoa is all praises about Gunn and Safran, and shares that he’s “extremely, extremely excited” about his DCEU future but won’t divulge any secrets other than “there’s a lot of badass shit coming up.”

Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom premieres December 20.