Jason Momoa pitched his own Aquaman sequel plan, and the studio 'loved it'

Last year, Aquaman became the king of the DCEU with his first standalone movie. Directed by James Wan and starring Jason Momoa in the title role, Aquaman pulled in more than $300 million domestically and crossed the billion-dollar mark worldwide to become DC's highest-grossing movie ever. This made a sequel to the film inevitable, and in a new interview Momoa noted that this time around, he'll play a larger role in steering the franchise ship. 

Momoa is Esquire's cover star this month, and in a profile covering his career and his upcoming AppleTV+ streaming series See, Aquaman's future became part of the conversation. After cameoing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and becoming one of the most entertaining parts of Justice League, Momoa's Arthur Curry rose up to become — alongside Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman — one of the biggest stars in the DC Films stable. Like Wonder Woman, Aquaman's big-screen future was secured quickly thanks to major box office success, and the sequel is already set for a 2022 release date. 

That means that, while See is foremost on this mind at the moment, Momoa will be returning to the DCEU to start work on Aquaman 2 next year, and he revealed to Esquire that the sequel will include a lot of his own input on the story. 

“I came in with a big pitch,” he said. “I came in with the whole thing mapped out, and they loved it.”

Earlier this year, Aquaman co-writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was announced as the chosen screenwriter for the sequel, but we still know very little about the film's story. Aquaman dealt with Arthur, in the wake of Justice League, working on his hero chops and struggling to embrace his destiny as King of Atlantis even as he tried to prevent his half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) from starting a war with the surface. Being King will no doubt present a new set of challenges for Arthur, and Momoa clearly had some ideas about where that might lead. 

Aquaman 2 is set to hit theaters December 16, 2022, but it's not the only undersea adventure Warner Brothers has planned for the DCEU. A spinoff focused on the horrors of The Trench is also in development, and while it doesn't have a release date yet, it could arrive before the sequel does.