Nicole Kidman contributed to the comic book movie genre more than 20 years ago when she played Dr. Chase Meridian in Batman Forever. Now she's getting ready to delve into those waters again, figuratively and literally. Next year she'll appear in the Aquaman movie as Atlanna, Arthur Curry's Atlantean mother. So why did she choose to hop onto the superhero movie? It was because director James Wan promised that she would be playing an underwater warrior: As Kidman put it:
When he said 'female warrior from the sea' who wears mother of pearl, I went 'Yes. Female warrior from the sea. Me like.'
Once the scheduling is ironed out, Nicole Kidman will head to Australia later this year to shoot Aquaman. While speaking with Deadline, Kidman noted that she's been wanting to work with James Wan, a friends of hers and fellow Australian, for a while, so when he delivered that Atlanna pitch to her, she couldn't pass up the opportunity. After playing a psychiatrist/love interest to Batman back in 1995, now she'll get to play around in Aquaman's corner of the DC universe as the hero's badass mom. This also hopefully means Kidman will appear in an action scene or two rather than be relegated to the sidelines.
In the comics, Atlanna left Atlantis for the surface world, and while the circumstances of her departure depending on the DC Comics era, she is usually depicted as falling in love with the human Thomas Curry. In the New 52, Atlanna was forcibly taken back to Atlantis and was believed to have died while trying to flee Orvax, the military leader she was supposed to marry who was the reason she left Atlantis in this continuity. However, in the present day, Aquaman and Mera learned that she was actually transported to Pacifica, a magical realm for the Atlanteans who wanted to remain on land when the kingdom sank long ago. Aside from Atlanna's dalliance with Thomas, it's unclear how exactly Aquaman will use Atlanna, though fingers crossed that she will swing a sword or trident at some point.
Along with Nicole Kidman's Atlanna, Aquaman's main cast consists of Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry, Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm (a.k.a. Ocean Master), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry, Dolph Lundgren as Nereus and Ludi Lin as Murk. No plot details have been revealed yet, but the movie will be set after Justice League.
Aquaman dives into theaters on December 21, 2018, but you can see the hero make his full DCEU debut when Justice League is released on November 17. As for Nicole Kidman, she'll appear next month in The Beguiled. Don't forget to check out our 2017 movie schedule to see what else is coming to the big screen this year.
