It already seemed like Aquaman was poised to be the DCEU’s Thor, after the muscular and belocked Jason Momoa was cast as Arthur Curry, but now it looks like Warner Bros. is doubling down by bringing Aquaman’s jilted and jealous half-brother into the mix. Deadline reported on Monday that actor Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring films) has been brought in to play Orm, aka Ocean Master, in James Wan‘s upcoming solo Aquaman film, currently set for release in October of 2018. Wilson is a fixture of Wan’s oeuvre, appearing in four of the director’s last five projects.
Ocean Master has been one of Aquaman’s most persistent adversaries, dating all the way back to Aquaman #29 in September of 1966. His exact backstory has been altered several times, first following the game-changing Crisis on Infinite Earths saga, and again in The New 52 timeline, but in each iteration, Orm is Arthur’s younger half-brother, who is resentful at being the “unloved” son and at being passed over for his chance to rule Atlantis. He takes on the moniker of Ocean Master and sets out to rule the sea (and land, sometimes) after amassing an army to aid him. He’s made several animated appearances, most prominently as the main villain in the 2015 DC Animated feature, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis.
If Wan’s Aquaman movie is going to hew closely to the Throne of Atlantis story arc–written in comics form by none other than DC’s Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Johns–then we are in for a pretty epic and massive underwater war movie. That doesn’t seem especially likely given they’ve already teased Black Manta would be the main antagonist of the movie, but if they’re setting up Ocean Master to be the villain in future movies, then I like the forethought. And Wilson is an excellent–if definitely less beefy–choice to play Aquaman’s angry kin. And, unlike Thor, having Orm around for a movie before making him the all-out baddie seems the right choice to me.
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Image: DC/Warner Bros Animation
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist and a big ol’ DC Comics fanboy. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
