Jason Momoa Says Aquaman’s ‘Justice League’ Arc Will Be Hard To Watch

When the Justice League come together for the first time, not all of its heroes will be fully formed. In a new interview with SFX Magazine, Aquaman star Jason Momoa warns fans may not recognize the aquatic superhero — yet.

“Aquaman, he’s not even really Aquaman yet,” Momoa said. “He’s not the King of the Seven Seas. We don’t really get there until my solo movie, at the end.”

Director James Wan’s solo undersea adventure doesn’t swim into theaters until December 2018, but Justice League will set up a resentful Arthur Curry who has yet to embrace his heritage as an Atlantean warrior poised for the throne.

“Really, it’s a huge growth for me,” Momoa continued. “It’s a gigantic arc for Arthur Curry. It may be tough for a lot of fans to watch what they’re gonna see, how I portray him. But you gotta wait until we get to the solo movie to really know. Because he’s not king yet. He doesn’t believe in himself, he doesn’t know what to do with the powers he has. He’s going through tons of loss. He hates Atlanteans. The fact that people are calling him ‘Aquaman’ right now — he couldn’t give two shits about anything Atlantean. So he’s really not quite there yet. That’s kind of tough to play. We gotta figure out the origin, where we’re going. Some people will be like, ‘This isn’t my Aquaman.’ But we’re not there yet.”

A synopsis that surfaced earlier this year detailed Momoa’s solo movie will “center on Aquaman as a reluctant ruler of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis who is caught between land dwellers that are always polluting the globe and his own people who are ready to invade the surface.”

Aquaman, starring Momoa, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Willem Dafoe and Nicole Kidman, opens December 21, 2018. Momoa will first co-star in Justice League alongside Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher, out November 17.