James Gunn: Casting Aquaman Actor Jason Momoa as Lobo Was “Always Part of the Plan”

Jason Momoa is going from Aquaman to The Main Man. While Momoa’s Lobo casting in the upcoming Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie wasn’t announced until it surfaced in the press last December, it was “always part of the plan” that DC Studios co-chiefs Peter Safran and James Gunn unveiled back in January 2023. Two years later, with production now underway on the second film in the rebooted DC Universe, Safran and Gunn gave an update on all things DCU — including the decision to have the Aquaman actor ported over from the old DC Extended Universe.

“Jason was literally the first text I got after this was announced,” Gunn said during a press conference on the Warner Bros. lot, referring to the studio appointing Gunn and Safran co-chairmen and chief executive officers of DC Studios in 2022. “And his text was — let me see if I can remember — it was very eloquent. I think it was, ‘LOBO BABY!!!,’ all in capital letters, with 10 billion exclamation points.”

RELATED: Who the Frag Is Lobo? Jason Momoa’s DCU Character Explained

“And so, essentially, I was like, ‘I think that’s a pretty good idea.’ So it was always part of the plan,” he continued. “I had no problems whatsoever with him having played Aquaman before.”

After his cameo in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and starring role in 2017’s Justice League, Momoa reprised his role as Aquaman/Arthur Curry in Gunn’s Peacemaker and the two Safran-produced Aquaman movies that collectively grossed $1.5 billion at the global box office between 2018 and 2023.

“Can anybody think of better casting for Lobo?” Safran asked. “It’s perfect.”

Momoa will play the Czarnian bounty hunter opposite Milly Alcock’s Kara Zor-El in the Supergirl movie, which recently started filming at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the UK. While the character was once planned to appear in the eight-issue Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic book by writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely, he was ultimately cut from the galaxy-spanning series about an alien girl who seeks a bounty hunter to bring her father’s killer to justice.

“Lobo was always something I wanted to play with in the DCU,” Gunn said, likening Lobo to harder-edged, fan-favorite characters who saw a rise in popularity after making a jump to the big screen.

“[In 2016], Deadpool was about to come out, and everybody was like, ‘Who is this guy? I don’t know.’ If you’re a comic book fan, you know Deadpool is an enormous character, tons of people love him,” Gunn said. “There’s some fuel behind him, same thing with Harley Quinn coming out in Suicide Squad. She’s not well known by everyone, but there is a lot of fandom behind Harley Quinn. And Lobo is one of those characters. Deathstroke is one of those characters. Those are characters that have a lot of people behind them and who love them, but aren’t known by the general public in the way that Wonder Woman or Superman are.”

Even before Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom marked the official end of the DCEU in 2023, Momoa teased he was “very excited” about Gunn and Safran assuming control of the DC throne in 2022. “There are a lot of cool things that are going to be coming up, and one of my dreams come true will be happening under their watch,” he told ET Canada, “so stay tuned.”

DC’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow — starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, Eve Ridley as the alien girl Ruthye Marye Knoll, David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham as Kara’s parents, Matthias Schoenaerts as the villain Krem of the Yellow Hills, and Jason Momoa as Lobo — is scheduled to open in theaters on June 26, 2026.