Actor Jason Momoa made it clear he feels no pressure for the upcoming Aquaman sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, to do well.
Momoa made his thoughts clear in a recent interview with Men’s Health where he briefly discussed the success of the first film, the difficulty to adapt Aquaman, the upcoming the sequel, and the character in general.
First, Momoa shared his surprise that the first film performed as well as it did at the box office. The first film grossed $335 million at the domestic box office and another $808.7 million at the international box office for a global gross of $1.1 billion. Much of that international box office, specifically $291.8 million, came from China according to The-Numbers.
Momoa told the outlet, “Well, to be perfectly honest, I was absolutely baffled that Aquaman was received so well.”
“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 continued. “I don’t go do things and think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get $1 billion on this one.’ I go in and do my best job.”
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According to Men’s Health’s Ben Court Momoa would express a range of emotions regarding Aquaman specifically frustration, bitterness, and apathy albeit he doesn’t include any of Momoa’s comments that do indeed express these emotions.
However, Momoa did inform him, “It’s not that I don’t care about Aquaman; it’s a wonderful character.” The actor would then declare Aquaman the hardest comic book character to adapt given how general audiences perceive him, “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.”
The actor then made his opinion known that he’s feeling no pressure for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to perform well, ” 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.”
According to Court the reason he isn’t feeling this pressure is due to the chaos at DC, with Momoa noting that “different directors [have] different ideas of who Aquaman is.”
On top of this, Warner Bros. reportedly passed on a 50-page script that Momoa and his producing partner Brian Mendoza submitted for the sequel.
Momoa said, “That’s the reason why I love directing and creating. At the end of Chief of War, I’m like, ‘Yeah, feel free to knock, ridicule it. If it isn’t good, then we suck. It’s our fault.’ Yeah. I don’t wanna just go like, ‘I’m acting. I’ll be in my trailer.’ I love being able to burn for what I believe in.”
He added, “I’ve seen some of the most shocking acting performances firsthand and watched them edited, and they were amazing. I wish I could tell you who it was. I’m like, ‘What the f***?’ I watched this guy who had to be f***ing propped up. They read the lines to him. But this motherfucker killed it when the edit came in and was applauded for it. At that point, I was like, ‘Wow, this s**t is made in the edit.’”
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Momoa’s comments about movie magic and editing echo what former DC Films head Walter Hamada testified in court during Johnny Depp’s lawsuit against Aquaman actress Amber Heard.
Hamada testified there were conversations about potentially recasting Amber Heard due to chemistry issues with Momoa, “It was the concerns that were brought up at the wrap of the first movie, production of the first movie, which was the issue of chemistry. Did the two have chemistry?”
“I think editorially they were able to make that relationship work in the first movie, but there was a concern that it took a lot of effort to get there,” he added. “And would we be better off recasting, finding someone who had more natural chemistry with Jason Momoa and move forward that way?”
Hamada later detailed, “The reality is it’s not uncommon on movies for two leads to not have chemistry. That it’s sort of movie magic and editorial, the ability to sort of put performances together and with the magic of, you know, a great score and how you put the pieces together you can fabricate, sort of, that chemistry.”
“I think, at the end of the day, if you watch the movie, they looked like they had great chemistry, but I just know that through the course of the post-production that it took a lot of effort to get there. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes it’s very easy, you just put the characters on the screen together and they work, and sometimes it’s harder,” he added.
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The fact that Momoa feels no pressure for the sequel to do well might be due to the fact that he already feels confident that he will continue on in the role of Aquaman. Momoa previously told Variety that he planned to stay in the role, “I’ll always be Aquaman. Ain’t anyone coming in there and taking shit. There might be some other characters, too. I can play other things, too. I can be funny and savage and charming.”
“I’ll always be Aquaman.” Jason Momoa opens up about his meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran: “We’ve got a lot of good things coming.” https://t.co/m6i0OuZtEC pic.twitter.com/jDFss3gojB
— Variety (@Variety) January 20, 2023
He reiterated that sentiment while speaking with Total Film at the end of March, “Peter [Safran]’s my producer [on Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom], and is a dear friend. I absolutely think Aquaman will be involved in the DCU. It’s on, bro – there’s no one bigger than Aquaman!”
He added, “But, also, I hope people are excited to see the new one. It’s fun. I really enjoy doing comedy. There’s some really funny stuff with Patrick Wilson. I really adore him. We had a great time working together. It’s like we’re brothers. There’s a lot of cool stuff happening in this one.”
However, Safran seemed to indicate that Momoa’s time as Aquaman might be up in recent comments to Men’s Health, “I look forward to working with Jason for many years to come. I would be happy for it to be in Arthur Curry’s world, but if/when another opportunity came up, I’d find another great character for him to create.”
Nevertheless, he also claimed, “There are few superhero castings that are more perfect than Momoa as Aquaman.”
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is expected to arrive in theaters on December 20, 2023.
What do you make of Momoa’s comments?
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