Similar to how Daniel Craig was vocal on his press tours for recent 007 films that No Time to Die was his swan song as James Bond, Jason Momoa has been casting great doubt that he’s coming back as the fishy superhero, Aquaman.
This comes ahead of the box office opening for Warner Bros/DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom which isn’t expected to do well this weekend with a $40M domestic start over 4-days. The first Aquaman is the highest grossing DC movie of all-time at $1.1 billion, though that movie’s gross was greatly boosted by its play in China when the country embraced Hollywood tentpoles.
At a Monday fan event at The Grove in LA, Aquaman franchise director James Wan hailed Momoa saying “You will always be my Aquaman,” emphasizing that many will remember how the actor played the first iteration of the DC superhero.
Momoa took the mic in a somber tone and said, “This might be the last time we’re up on the stage together, it’s been a long journey. It’s been 12 years playing this character, the longest I ever played a character through so much.”
Watch Momoa chatting Monday below:
“The truth of it is — I mean, if the audience loves it, then there’s a possibility,” Momoa also told Entertainment Tonight recently about his future at the fish-man. “But right now, I’m like, ‘It’s not looking too good.’”
In an interview with The Independent yesterday, DC co-Boss Peter Safran, who also produced both Aquaman movies before landing the studio gig, emphasized that he’s keeping the door open for Momoa.
“We’ll see what happens with him beyond it. I know that Jason will always have a home at DC, and at Warner Bros. In fact, his next movie is Minecraft.”
“If it’s the end of the journey, fine. If it goes on, that’s also fine,” Safran continued.
“What I hope is that people will really be here to support him on this journey.”
Speaking of extra roles for Momoa, there’s been buzz of him playing anti-hero-bounty hunter Lobo in the new DC universe; much in the same way that Chris Evans did double duty in Marvel as Captain America and the Human Torch/Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four.
Momoa teased to us at Sundance “I love [DC co-studio boss James] Gunn and so there’s gonna be some really cool things, what they’re doing with DC, and I definitely will be in more than just one.”
Declared Momoa back in January, “There’s room for me to play a couple different [roles].”