‘Aquaman’ Movie: Detailed Look at Black Manta’s Costume

Today at New York Comic Con, Warner Bros. gave fans an up-close-and-personal look at the high-tech Black Manta suit from the forthcoming Aquaman movie from director James Wan.

The timing feels appropriate, since fans got their first detailed look at the villain ahead of Comic Con International in San Diego back in July.

You can check out a number of photos we took at the DC booth in the attached image gallery.

The character will 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.”

[Start Gallery Call-to-Action Key=7605]The suit, as you can see in the attached images, features propulsion jets around his calves and ankles, harpoon guns in the wrists, LED displays throughout, and navigation turbines on the back.

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.