Last year’s Aquaman finally got Warner Bros.’ DC film franchise back on the right track with a solid critical response and a massive box office performance. While the DCEU’s most successful movie to date won’t be getting a sequel until late 2022, work has already begun on Aquaman 2. In fact, they already know where the sequel will go because the story is locked down, as Jason Momoa explained:
I was really, really, really, passionate, to do the second one because it’s the first time where it’s all on Earth. It’s combining land and sea, kind of like what I’m doing with this [environmental cause]. There’s no outside aliens destroying Earth, it’s us. And so I was excited to get back in there, and so I’ve been working with our previous writer, and getting in there, and we’ve got a locked story, and we’re getting into it. And I think it’s going to be like in two years or whatever. The beard will be back by then.
Jason Momoa sounds quite enthusiastic about returning to the Aquaman role, and although he didn’t give any hints about what it would entail, he did reveal that the story for Aquaman 2 is already ‘locked.’ So although it is still years away, a plan is already in place for what will happen in the sequel to the $1 billion-grossing film.
It also sounds like the sequel could again be primarily focused on Arthur Curry’s story and maybe the relationship between surface dwellers and those above versus extraterrestrial threats. Aquaman was successful with this approach, and with DC’s relaxed stress on cinematic universe connectivity, it makes sense.
We’ve previously heard that Aquaman screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was returning to pen Aquaman 2, and based on his comments on The Ellen Show, Jason Momoa worked with him to nail down the story. Now all that’s left is to translate that story into a script and turn that into a movie. There’s plenty of time to do that and producer Peter Safran indicated that the approach is to take that time to get things right.
Although Aquaman 2 is a long way off and the story could certainly change, it is encouraging that Jason Momoa can already say that it is locked down. That means that he and those involved have a certain level of confidence with where they want to take the story and the characters. Ideally, that also means that the locked story is a good one.
With Jason Momoa apparently having some input on the story of Aquaman 2, I’ll be curious to see how much of an environmental message it has. While on Ellen, Jason Momoa was promoting his Mananalu water, aluminum-canned water that is recyclable and an alternative to single-use plastic bottles that often wind up in the ocean. He’s really living Aquaman’s mission to protect the oceans and perhaps that message will find its way into the sequel film as well.
Regardless, there are plenty of directions the story of Aquaman 2 could go. Aquaman’s end-credits scene seemed to set up Black Manta and Dr. Stephen Shin as antagonists in the sequel, and there are of course other comics elements it could draw from as well. Whatever the story is, Jason Momoa will also have his beard back by the time we see it, which is probably for the best.
I imagine we've got a while to go before we find out what Aquaman 2 will be about, but hopefully before long we'll hear whether or not director James Wan is returning, as that is still not entirely clear.
Aquaman 2 dives into theaters on December 16, 2022. However, a new Star Wars movie was just announced for that same date, so we’ll see if Aquaman 2 stays in that spot. For movies arriving just a bit sooner, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.
