Jason Momoa was shocked “Aquaman” stayed afloat at the box office.
The DC superhero led the 2018 standalone film and is set to reprise the role in upcoming sequel “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which was teased at 2023 CinemaCon.
“Well, to be perfectly honest, I was absolutely baffled that ‘Aquaman’ was received so well,” Momoa recently told Men’s Health. “I’ve done things that are amazing that no one sees and no one gives a shit about. You just don’t know in this business.”
Momoa noted that he does not approach roles with the mindset of, “Oh, I’m going get $1 billion on this one” and instead just wants to “do my best job.”
“It’s not that I don’t care about Aquaman; it’s a wonderful character,” Momoa said. “Aquaman is probably the hardest character in comic book history. He’s made fun of and ridiculed, but I tried to give it heart and soul, and I’m proud of it in certain ways.”
As for “The Lost Kingdom,” the “Game of Thrones” alum added, “Do I feel pressure for [the sequel] to do well? No. All I can do is give it my all. But it’s in a lot of other people’s hands.”
Momoa previously told Variety that he co-wrote the first story treatment for “The Lost Kingdom,” but he revealed in the Men’s Health cover story that Warner Bros. Discovery did not follow the treatment completely.
“The beautiful thing [about ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’] is me and my partner wrote the first treatment for it and it was about a 50-page treatment, and a lot of it has to deal with me talking to the U.N. about what’s happening with the melting ice caps,” Momoa said in January 2023. “There’s no far-off galaxy coming to destroy us or aliens from another place. It’s us ruining our planet. We need to get it together and save our home.”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” director James Wan admitted the superhero sequel was “less painful” for Momoa and his co-stars due to the advanced technology for underwater sequences.
Wan added that during the first film, the actors endured “a lot of physical pain” due to hanging on wires and tuning forks. “It was not the most comfortable apparatus to be strapped into,” Wan said. “[Now] it’s less painful for the actors, which makes it easier for me as well, because they’re not screaming and yelling at me. But the most important thing is it really frees up the filmmaking to really do things I’ve never been able to do before, and that is exciting.”
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” hits theaters December 20 from Warner Bros.
