Movies like Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Avengers: Infinity War all succeeded in crafting fantastic villains, mainly because these films focused on making their antagonists stand for something. It sounds like DC’s Aquaman is going to follow suit.
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Yesterday EW released the first look as Patrick Wilson‘s Orm, the villainous half-brother of Jason Momoa‘s Aquaman. Today, the site shared an interview with Wilson, where he explains that Orm is fighting for the right cause, at least in his own mind.
“He’s kind of an eco-warrior,” Wilson said. “He’s got a very clear gripe with the surface world, which has been polluting his oceans for centuries. And that’s something for me — I’m sure for you too — that’s very easy to understand. If somebody was just constantly polluting our air and ruining how we lived …”
Like Killmonger in Black Panther, Orm believes that other groups of people are responsible for the destruction of his own. He’s going to do anything he can to assure that the tragedy doesn’t continue. To him, the surface dwellers are polluting the water, killing what lives in their ocean, and they need to be dealt with accordingly.
Wilson’s casting in Aquaman didn’t come as much of a surprise when it was announced, considering that the film is being directed by James Wan. Wilson and Wan have worked together on multiple occasions, including the two Conjuring films.
The duo has developed a close friendship over the years, and Wan knew that Wilson was the right guy to bring Orm’s motives to life.
“Patrick is such a talented actor and a chameleon as well, he can disappear into any role,” Wan said of the actor. “Orm’s got a soft spot for his brother who lives on the surface world and if anything just wants him to rule Atlantis and the world together, but his brother doesn’t see it that way. A lot of the clashes they have stem from their different upbringings. So I didn’t want to cast a typical villain actor.”
Do you think Orm will go down as one of the better comic book movie villains in recent memory? Let us know in the comments!
Aquaman, directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa, is set to hit theaters on December 21.
