Justice League's Aquaman is the Wolverine of the DC universe, says James Wan

Given the fact that he is the King of a mythical island with an ability to talk to undersea creatures, Aquaman is one of the more challenging heroes to adapt to screen. Casting Jason Momoa's is definitely a step in the right direction though, and James Wan - who will be directing a solo Aquaman movie - recently explained how the character will bring a Wolverine-esque dynamic to the Justice League:

"I actually think it’s a brilliant move on Zack and co. to cast someone like Jason", Wan told IGN. "Immediately, the whole joke aspect of Aquaman goes out the window. You have such a muscular, superhero-y character and one that is almost, to me, in some ways… I look at him, he’s kind of the Wolverine in some respect. He’s the outsider who gets pulled into this world and he kind of doesn’t want to belong and he was doing his own thing. And he prided freedom above everything else. That kind of plays nicely into who his character is. He’s like a reluctant superhero, right? He’s the reluctant king, basically, or would-be king".

The little we see of Aquaman in the first trailer for Justice League fits Wan's description to a tee - we can already tell that he's not keen on being a hero judging by his first meeting with Batman - and it will be interesting to see what exactly convinces him to lend his unique skill-set to the team. Future trailers will doubtless clue us in as to how Aquaman's powers will be visualised, but Wan is keen to note that there might be a few changes when his solo film comes around:

"Listen, I’ll be honest, in some ways, JL will be an experiment for me to see what works and what may not work as well. And then kind of go, okay… Here’s the great thing, with all these superhero movies, you watch from one movie to another, and they always sort of slightly change things along the way. You kind of have to do that to make what’s best for your film".

Directed by Zack Snyder and starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, J.K. Simmons, Amber Heard, Ezra Miller, and Ray Fisher, Justice League: Part 1 is currently scheduled for a November 17, 2017 release.

Images: Warner Bros.

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.