Jason Momoa – yes, your new Aquaman – makes a stop at the Jimmy Kimmel studio for an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Hollywood. He is, in a word, breathtaking. Just a perfect specimen. Check out the pics after the jump.
So it appears the rumours are true: Jason Momoa, AKA everybody’s favourite Dothraki behemoth Khal Drogo, is to play Aquaman in the forthcoming superhero sequel-cum-origins story Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. And you’d have to say that Zack Snyder and his team have pulled off a bit of a coup by recruiting the Game of Thrones star.
The Dweller in the Depths is a superhero who requires a serious image makeover if he is ever to take centre stage in Warner Bros’ planned rollout of movies based on DC Comics’ venerable back catalogue. There is, quite simply something deeply silly about water-breathing heroes in the first place: just ask Waterworld’s Kevin Costner. But Aquaman’s classic incarnation really is one of the hokiest in the entire DC canon: he is usually presented as the blue-eyed, blond-haired sometime king of Atlantis, a man with the ability to communicate with sea-life and speak any language on Earth, thanks to his telepathic abilities. As if that last part makes any sort of sense.
All of the above is no more ridiculous, of course, than the backstory surrounding Marvel‘s hugely popular Thor. And it is certainly no more dumb than some of the other golden-age heroes in DC’s past that Warner apparently plans to revive: Wonder Woman, Shazam and Green Lantern spring to mind.
But Aquaman has being subjected to indignities that even the above never faced (despite Green Lantern’s rubbish 2011 live-action film and the other Princess Diana’s predilection for invisible planes). A few years back he was the subject of a very silly fictional movie in the hit HBO comedy series Entourage, one which brilliantly satirised the general poor quality of pre-Marvel Studios superhero movies and the determination of big-name Hollywood actors to take part in them nonetheless, in exchange for boatloads of cold, hard cash.
In the nine years since the Entourage storyline, much has changed, and the idea of an Aquaman movie doesn’t seem nearly as foolish, particularly if the character can be reinvented. And here’s where Momoa comes in: while certain unfortunate audiences may remember him for early appearances in the likes of Baywatch Hawaii, most have only known the Honolulu-born actor from his single season or so of appearances as Khal Drogo in the greatest swords-and-sorcery TV show of all time. Momoa’s mixed-race ethnicity and rugged countenance are about as far as it’s possible to get from the clean cut Aryan look of the classic Aquaman, making him the ideal candidate to reintroduce the water-dwelling superhero to audiences through a brand-new prism. To put it simply, Momoa could make us take Aquaman seriously.
Why is that so important? Well, Man of Steel succeeded for the most part because it vied to present a world as close as possible to reality, one in which Superman suddenly arrived to shock the planet with his very existence. While Marvel has generally used comic quips to plaster over the preposterous nature of some of its more far-out heroes, Warner seems to be planning a cinematic universe based around leaner, grittier versions of the classic DC staples. So Aquaman in Dawn of Justice needs to be believable as a figure who might just exist in some (admittedly pretty batty) version of our own universe.
Momoa has also featured as Conan the Barbarian in a weak remake of the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger fantasy and co-starred as a villain in the largely forgettable Walter Hill/Sly Stallone crime thriller Bullet to the Head since playing Khal Drogo. But most audiences will forgive him for those, so ineluctably classy was his work in Game of Thrones portraying a character who barely breathes a word of English throughout his run. And he appears to have been more careful about taking on starring roles since Conan failed to find traction, a move which has extended the half-life of his Game of Thrones cache.
Frankly, it’s hard to imagine an actor with a better chance of rescuing Aquaman from superhero purgatory. Unless of course, a certain Vinnie Chase happens to be running low on cash.
