Pecs, fish and the Seven Kingdoms in trailer for Aquaman 2

DC has just dropped the trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the sequel to 2018’s smash hit Aquaman. And when I say smash hit, I mean it; that movie made over $1 billion at the box office, making it the highest grossing movie starring a DC Comics character in history.

With The Flash and Blue Beetle bottoming out at the box office recently, Warner Bros. Discovery could use another hit. Can star Jason Momoa give it to them? Watch the trailer below and decide for yourself:

The new movie picks up with Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, as he’s raising a child and ruling Atlantis, having it all. Trouble comes in the form of Black Manta, who wants to kill Aquaman, murder his family, destroy everything he holds dear, and “burn his kingdom to ash.” Intense guy. How do you burn a kingdom to ash when the kingdom is underwater?

To help, Aquaman seeks out his brother Orm, whom he fought in the first movie. Together, they’ll form a buddy cop duo capable of saving the day.

Black Manta is played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Orm by Patrick Wilson, both of whom look like they’ve been doing nothing but pushups since the first movie came out years ago. Nicole Kidman also returns as Aquaman’s mom Atlanna. And I’m pretty sure there’s one more important member of the cast. Now who was it…?

Amber Heard shows up very briefly as Mera in Aquaman 2 trailer

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has faced a lot of hurdles on its way to theaters. It’s been delayed multiple times, both because of COVID concerns and because WBD kept reshuffling its release schedule as it tried to figure out what to do with its DC movies. The current DC universe is being phased out in order to make way for a new one headed up by James Gunn, and it was unclear how tightly Aquaman 2 would tie itself to other DC films that came before.

Then there’s Amber Heard, who plays Aquaman’s wife Mera. She had a prominent role in the first movie and will be in the second, although she only shows up in the trailer for a couple of seconds and has no lines.

Director James Wan has claimed that Mera was never going to have a big role in this movie, but Heard claimed that her part had been “pared down.” Heard was at the center of a PR maelstrom when she was engaged in a defamation lawsuit with her ex-husband Johnny Depp, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if WBD was trying to keep her involvement in Aquaman 2 to a minimum to avoid incurring the wrath of keyboard warriors.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will finally come out in theaters on December 20.

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