Zack Snyder Had Darker Ideas for Jason Momoa and Aquaman Than What We Got
Before overriding Zack Snyder’s vision when he stepped away from Justice League, Warner Bros. gave the director carte blanche to explore every character on the team the way he saw fit. He was meant to have a say in everything initially, even the direction and tone going into Aquaman’s solo film. However, whilst Snyder had a few ideas, nothing made it beyond the pitch.
Snyder wanted Aquaman to be a darker story about revenge that grew the blood feud between Arthur and Black Manta into a powder keg. He also had it in mind to celebrate Jason Momoa’s Polynesian heritage in a way that turned Arthur’s tattoos into a plot device. More than just for show, they were supposed to have a dramatic story behind them
“Right, so this concept was developed by me and Jason Momoa before the films were made, to honor his Pacific Islander roots. When Arthur’s father is killed by Black Manta’s father at the end of the first act, Arthur takes his ashes back to his people in the Pacific islands for a ritual cremation. During that grieving ceremony, he received the tattoos to honor his father’s memory,” Snyder explained on Instagram.
“Vulko, tasked by his mother to watch over him, provides the Samoan tattoo artist with a special Atlantean needle that can pierce Arthur’s dense skin. The tattoos become a permanent inscription of that loss and identity, bridging his Pacific Islander heritage with his Atlantean lineage – and this loss also creates the blood feud between Arthur and Black Manta that drives the larger conflict,” he continued.
Some of that, such as Vulko’s mentorship of Arthur growing up, but there would’ve been more murder in Snyder’s script. Fortunately, Aquaman’s dad (Temuera Morrison) survived in James Wan’s version, although he was taken out of commission by the global disaster created by Atlantis.
It might have been more interesting to see Aquaman and Manta’s rivalry play out in something grander and more personal than a B-plot where Manta’s dad dies because that needed to happen. However, the brighter, campier film breached the billion-dollar threshold, making Warner happy and complacent for a few years until they were desperate enough to call Snyder back to complete his cut.
