Line #30 Trivia/Aquaman2018


1	* ActorSharedBackground: Aquaman is established to be the son of a white Atlantean mother and a Polynesian Maori father. Creator/JasonMomoa is mixed race in real life just like his character.
2	* AllStarCast: There's no shortage of names here. The cast ranges from modern stars (Creator/JasonMomoa, Creator/AmberHeard, Creator/PatrickWilson, Creator/YahyaAbdulMateenII, Creator/RandallPark, Creator/LudiLin) to Hollywood veterans (Creator/NicoleKidman, Creator/DolphLundgren, Creator/WillemDafoe, Creator/DjimonHounsou, Creator/GrahamMcTavish and, surprisingly, Creator/JulieAndrews).
3	* AwesomeDearBoy:
4	** The reason Creator/NicoleKidman agreed to play Atlanna (Aquaman's mother) was that she's friends with fellow Aussie Creator/JamesWan and has vocally supported his career since ''[[{{Film/SawI}} Saw]]'' and after he described the role to her, [[http://ew.com/movies/2017/03/31/nicole-kidman-why-she-joined-aquaman/ she thought it would be fun]].
5	** When Creator/JulieAndrews was offered a part in the movie, she said yes as soon as her agent described what the part was. Notably, this was the reason why she turned down a RemakeCameo in ''Film/MaryPoppinsReturns''.
6	** Creator/TemueraMorrison's performance in ''Film/OnceWereWarriors'' was a big influence on Creator/JasonMomoa's decision to get into acting, and he strongly pushed for Morrison to be given the role of Thomas Curry.
7	* BillingDisplacement: Creator/RandallPark gets supporting cast billing in the CreativeClosingCredits in spite of only appearing in two very short scenes in the whole film. If it wasn't for the mid-credits scene, his first appearance would've been a MythologyGag with how brief it is.
8	* DawsonCasting:
9	** Minor one with Aquaman, who's introduced as being born in 1985 and the film being set circa 2018. Jason Momoa was born in 1979.
10	** Orm is Arthur's younger brother, and Patrick Wilson is six years older than Jason Momoa. The former being clean-shaven and short-haired while the latter is bearded and long-haired helped sell the fact that Orm is younger.
11	* DeletedScene:
12	** In the original version of the film, the Trench were meant to be played by actors in costumes and they featured shark-like heads.
13	** After beeing captured by Orm Marius, Arthur Curry is thrown in a prison where he starts a prison riot, which ends up involving Sharks-guards.
14	** A scene where Arthur Curry grabs Mera out of the water during a moment when the waves were particularly powerful.
15	** Jason Momoa revealed via Instagram that the film's conclusion would have shown Aquaman, Nereus and the Brine King addressing the UN. Presumably this was cut due to its similarities to the mid-credits scene from ''Film/{{Black Panther\|2018}}''.
16	* DirectedByCastMember: The Canadian French dub was directed by Creator/ManuelTadros, who also voiced Thomas Curry.
17	* ExecutiveMeddling: The decision to include Black Manta didn't belong to Creator/JamesWan, it was Creator/GeoffJohns (who was at the head of Creator/DCFilms back when the film was greenlit) who decided to include him, as he's one of his [[CreatorsFavorite personal favorite characters]] out of all those he worked on at Creator/DCComics.
18	* FakeAmerican: At least three of them. Queen Atlanna, King Atlan, and Thomas Curry (admittedly, Atlanteans aren't actually American, but they speak with the accents anyway) are played by the Australian Creator/NicoleKidman, the Scottish Creator/GrahamMcTavish and the New Zealander Creator/TemueraMorrison, respectively.
19	* PlayingAgainstType:
20	** Creator/JamesWan is quite possibly the biggest name in modern horror, but ''Aquaman'' is a LighterAndSofter superhero film that takes heavily after the retro adventure movies of the '80s with a bit of fantasy mixed in. Wan deliberately invoked this trope, wanting to make it different by sheer design[[labelnote:*]]though it's not his first time playing outside the horror sandbox, as he previously directed ''Film/FuriousSeven''[[/labelnote]]. Though, to be sure, the monstrous Trench and Karathen do provide a bit of a horror element to the film as well.
21	** Creator/TemueraMorrison, known for playing powerful warriors and ruthless bounty hunters, plays Arthur's sentimental father with no fighting skills.
22	** Creator/DolphLundgren usually plays imposing bad guys, action heroes, or both. While King Nereus ''is'' opposed to the protagonist and does a [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething reasonable amount of fighting]], he's ultimately a [[NobleDemon noble]] AntiVillain who's just obeying [[MyCountryRightOrWrong the will of his king.]]
23	** Who in the world would have expected Creator/JulieAndrews [[spoiler:to voice a gigantic sea monster?]]
24	* PlayingWithCharacterType: Creator/WillemDafoe has been typecast as characters who die and/or turn evil, with [[Film/SpiderMan1 his last role in a superhero movie]] fitting the mold perfectly. Here [[spoiler: Vulko was heroic all along and doesn't die]].
25	* ProductionPosse:
26	** Creator/PatrickWilson's involvement makes this his fifth film with James Wan.
27	** James Wan's longtime friend and collaborator Leigh Whannell makes a cameo as a cargo plane pilot.
28	* ReleaseDateChange: The film's release date was moved from July 27, 2018 to October 5. Then it was moved again, to December 21. It also came out one week earlier than previously scheduled in the UK, on December 14, and even earlier in China, on December 6.
29	* SoMyKidsCanWatch:
30	** Jason Momoa has been excited to play the role from second one when Creator/ZackSnyder chose him all the way back in 2013, but he has also expressed how happy he was for his children who are just as thrilled. He even saved his first watching of the finished film for the premiere to discover it at the same time as them.
31	** Crossing with AwesomeDearBoy, Nicole Kidman said that while she had fun filming, her daughters were especially interested in the film after learning that she was playing a superhero queen.
32	* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Thanks to their white-gold hair, strong chins and round cheeks, Nicole Kidman and Patrick Wilson are extremely convincing as a mother and son (especially considering she's only ''six years older'' than him.)
33	* SpoiledByTheCastList: Atlanna is played by Nicole Kidman which makes it highly likely she will appear again outside of the prologue as a star of her ranking wouldn't be limited to just a few minutes of screen time. In addition, the apparent de-aging effects suggest her re-appearance will be an older version of Atlanna than in the prologue (after all, you don't hire an actor who needs a fair amount of expensive CGI de-aging to play the entire part).
34	* SpoiledByTheMerchandise: Aquaman and Black Manta's new costumes were first glimpsed on a crew shirt, before finally being shown in full when images of the movie's statue line by DC Collectibles leaked online.
35	* StarMakingRole:
36	** Creator/JasonMomoa wasn't a total unknown going into the movie, having previously gained some fame from a brief role in ''Series/GameOfThrones''. The success of ''Aquaman'' turned him into a more house-hold name, and since he's become one of the more popular DC actors to come out of the films made by them.
37	** A more straightforward example would be Creator/YahyaAbdulMateenII, who played Black Manta. He was virtually unknown beforehand and afterwards became a hot commodity on the scene.
38	* WorkingTitle: "[[Literature/MobyDick Ahab]]".
39	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
40	** Creator/KarlUrban was considered for the part of Ocean Master before Creator/PatrickWilson was cast.
41	** Creator/PeterJackson, Creator/JeffNichols and [[Film/ThreeHundredRiseOfAnEmpire Noam Murro]] were approached to direct the film before Creator/JamesWan was hired. Jackson turned down the offer due to his lack of interest in comic book movies.
42	** Creator/JamesWan revealed he initially had the choice of which film he wanted to direct between ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} and ComicBook/TheFlash, but chose the former for being the "underdog".
43	** At one point, the Dead King, an ancestor of Aquaman who was resurrected as an insane zombie, was to appear in the film as an antagonist, but he was removed.
44	** Black Manta originally had more screen time in the movie, but the test audience and Wan felt like it was too much so his scenes were cut down. This was because they weren't sure if Aquaman would get sequel, but once they realized the movie would be a success, they made the changes to save it for the sequel.
45	** Concept art depicting the Atlantean invasion of the surface world shows a sequence of Comicbook/{{Batman}} arriving in his jet to help defend Sydney. It's unknown if any other heroes were considered, but the uncertain future of the Justice League characters following the failure of the ''Film/{{Justice League\|2017}}'' movie (including Creator/BenAffleck's departure from the franchise) likely contributed to the cameos being axed.
46	** According to Zack Snyder's pitch mentioned below, both Black Manta and Ocean Master were supposed to be captured and sent to a desert prison at the end of ''Aquaman'', setting them up to be freed by Lex Luthor in ''Justice League: Part II'' so they could join the LegionOfDoom.
47	* YouLookFamiliar:
48	** Creator/DjimonHounsou (who plays the Fisherman King and the Wizard Shazam in the [[Film/Shazam2019 film of the same name]]) and Natalia Safran (who plays Queen Rina here and Mrs. Sivana in ''SHAZAM!'') both apply, although both wear so much makeup and prosthetics that they are unrecognizable save for their voices.
49	** Well, sound: Patrick Wilson previously voiced the US President in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''.

Context Trivia / Aquaman2018