After cameoing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice last year, Jason Momoa will finally make his full debut as Aquaman this November in Justice League. After that, he'll lead his own movie...eventually. For a while, Arthur Curry's solo cinematic adventure was expected to come out on July 27, 2018. Then last December, Warner Bros and DC announced that it was being moved to October 5, 2018. Now comes word that Aquaman has been pushed back an additional two months, and this scheduling change will pit the aquatic hero against a certain Web-Slinger.
It was announced today (via THR) that Aquaman will now be released on December 21, 2018, making it one of the main blockbusters you'll be able to check out during that Christmas season. More importantly, Aquaman is now opening on the same day as Sony's animated Spider-Man movie, which stars Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker. Avatar 2 was also once believed to be opening that same day, but since James Cameron has said the long-awaited sequel won't make that deadline, Aquaman and Spider-Man will be going head to head that weekend.
Given how popular the superhero movie genre is now, it's become increasingly common for superhero movies from separate companies to open closely to one another. Looking at 2017, Wonder Woman arrives just a month after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Spider-Man: Homecoming will be released a month after the DC's Amazon's adventure. However, by rescheduling Aquaman for late December, DC has given us the rare direct face-off between two superhero properties, which almost happened in 2016 with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War. Admittedly, it's not quite an even playing ground since one is live action and the other is animated, but still, it will be interesting to see how Aquaman and the Miles Morales Spider-Man movie each perform in direct competition with one another. Longtime comic book fans will also be faced with having to decide which movie they'll see first on those early Thursday screenings.
Taking place after the events of Justice League, Aquaman will follow Arthur Curry as he continues protecting Atlantis, the Seven Seas and the surface world. Along with Jason Momoa reprising the eponymous protagonist, the cast includes Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Nicole Kidman as Queen Atlanna, Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry and Patrick Wilson as Orm, a.k.a. Ocean Master. James Wan is directing, with Will Beall handling script duties. As for the animated Spider-Man movie, Phil Lord and Chris Miller are writing and producing the movie, while Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey are serving as directors.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the most relevant news surrounding Aquaman as it comes in.
