‘Aquaman’ Reveals Detailed Look at Black Manta

Preview night for San Diego Comic-Con is now underway and with early floor access, all kinds of new merchandise is surfacing online.

With an Aquaman trailer on the horizon, the flick featuring Arthur Curry, Mera, and company has a presence throughout the San Diego Convention Center and if you direct you happen to stop by the Hasbro booth, you’ll notice one of the best looks at Black Manta yet.

Mounted above the display wall, a life-sized Black Manta statue can be seen holding a dagger and leaping through the air, as if he’s about to battle Aquaman himself. You can see a picture of the display below.

As for Black Manta in Aquaman, he’ll be played by The Get Down alum Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. On a recent visit to the set of Aquaman, ComicBook.com had a chance to sit down with Abdul-Mateen II to talk about his character.

“That thing [the Black Manta suit] is just badass, man,” Abdul-Matten II said. “We have our ideas about what the character’s going to be, and so I bring all of that stuff to it. But then you put that thing on, and you see yourself in the mirror, and all of a sudden, I’m 10 feet taller in that thing, and I feel like I could bust through a wall! I talked about wanting to run through walls, and just break s— in my meeting with Peter, when I auditioned for the job. And, I put on that suit, and everything’s just coming full circle.”

As far as Aquaman director James Wan goes, he’s just excited to be able to help bring a classic Aquaman villain to the silver screen.

“I think like most fans I love the really sort of strange design of Black Manta, and I see this guy, and I think what we all love about him is he’s kind of scary, he’s really badass to look at it,” Wan said. “But there’s just something kind of slightly off, right? The big giant head, these big two red glowing eyes. And so I didn’t want to shy away from that. I’m going to take what’s best about the design, and kind of bring my sensibility to it. And ultimately he’s a human character, and he has to go up against someone like Arthur/Aquaman, who is a superhero. And so I have to tweak the outfit slightly to give him the power that he needs to take on to fight Aquaman. But in terms of what he looks like, he’s very much in the same spirit.”

Aquaman hits theaters on December 21, 2018.