Aquaman has been one of the biggest hits in the modern DC film universe, so it was little surprise that the movie was given a sequel almost immediately. And while we've had to wait quite some time to see that sequel, production is now getting underway, and we actually can at least guess what the movie will be about, since it has a title, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. But that title doesn't tell us what's in store for one of the first film's most popular characters, Black Manta. Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II hopes that the new movie gives us a better look at the man inside the suit.
Speaking with Variety, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says that he hopes that the new Aquaman movie gives his character a chance to become a bit more well rounded. In the first film we saw a man on a quest for vengeance, so we understood him to some extent, but obviously there's more to the character than that and Abdul-Mateen II wants the new film to show that to audiences. The actor explains...
Now, we have a character who’s more mature, who has more time to breathe. And we get to understand him and some of his values and some of his motives. Hopefully in Aquaman 2, we can present a more well-rounded version of David Kane.
While most audiences liked Black Manta as a villain in Aquaman, he wasn't a particularly deep or well rounded villain. He was a guy out for vengeance, which, considering there was a lot more going on in Aquaman, was fine for that movie. But you'd be forgiven for not even remembering that Black Manta was a man named David Kane. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II hopes the next film will be able to look at the whole man and create a more complex character. He continues...
In the first film, we sort of got to meet him, but mostly it was about Black Manta. And this one, my hope is that we can meet David Kane a bit more and find out what makes him tick, and some of the things that he wants and struggles with. It’s a bit more mature of an experience for me, and I’m looking forward to bringing that to the screen.
How Black Manta will fit into the new Aquaman sequel is anybody's guess, but certainly, if he becomes a more well-rounded character, that's not a bad thing. What Yahya Abdul-Mateen II says about Black Manta is ultimately true of every character in the sequel who was in the first film. We got a chance to meet the character the first time, but now the sequel can build on what the first movie started. We still have a long time to wait to see just what these more mature characters will look like, as Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn't set for release until December 2022.
