The rightful King of Atlantis made one heck of a splash on Friday morning when Warner Bros. and DC Comics released a brand new trailer for Aquaman. The latest entry in the DC Expanded Universe doesn’t hit theaters until December, but the new trailer gave us our best taste yet of what we can expect from Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry in the character’s first solo outing. At more than five minutes in length, the “extended video” trailer gives us loads of background on Arthur Curry’s upbringing as both “a son of the land and a son of the seas,” and sets up his quest to reclaim his rightful place atop Atlantis’ throne. In order to do so, Aquaman will have to go up against his half-brother Orm, better known as the villainous Ocean Master to DC Comics fans, as well as what looks like a veritable army of Atlanteans who aren’t so keen on having a new monarch.
It also features our heroes solving Uncharted-style puzzles to access the Atlantis’ ruins, and a thrilling chase sequence in which Arthur and Mera (Amber Heard) desperately try to outrun the murderous treasure hunter Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his power-armor-clad goons. But perhaps best of all—in a moment that made my comic book-loving heart grow three sizes—we get to see Aquaman resplendent in his classic orange and green costume, wielding a trident like the watery badass that he is.Director James Wan revealed a new poster on Thursday teasing Aquaman’s iconic orange-and-green costume, but seeing it in its full glory was better than I could have hoped for.
Hearkening back to classic comic books is one of Wan’s driving creative mandates in crafting Aquaman. When Nerdist visited Wan in the film’s editing bay earlier this year, he professed his love of the Silver Age Aquaman stories in particular.“I kind of looked back historically at the different characters and the different worlds,” Wan said. “I’m a really big fan of the Silver Age Aquaman stuff, the early series, the stuff which ended up inspiring Super Friends and the Aquaman TV series, I love that! So I thought I wasn’t going to shy away from that. I was going to embrace it and do my own version of it. I just love that retro quality that the original comic book had, all these really fun characters, and I wanted to find a way to fit them into the movie.â€
Aquaman opens on December 21, 2018.What did you think of the new trailer? Let us know in the comments below.
Images: Warner Bros/DC Comics