Jason Momoa is returning to the DC cinematic universe, but not as Aquaman.
After portraying the King of the Sea as part of Zack Snyder’s DC films from 2016 to 2023, Momoa, 45, has signed up to play the “badass” bounty hunter Lobo in the new DCU, which is being spearheaded by Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn and producer Peter Safran.
According to his DC Comics bio, Lobo is “the last sentient being you’d ever want to get into a bar fight with if you hope to make it out in one piece.”
“There’s nothing in the galaxy that Lobo loves more than his pet dolphins, a good fight, the ladies and getting drunk in some intergalactic dive bar,” his bio reads in part.
In the comic books, the antihero has “fought on the side of both the good guys and the bad” and squared off against Superman and the Justice League, “and just about every superhero in the DC Universe.”
Momoa confirmed the news of his casting by sharing a quote from a 2023 Fandango interview in which he proclaimed the DC character as his favourite.
“So Lobo was…I collect comics, and I don’t do so much anymore, but he was always my favourite, and I always wanted to play Lobo, because I’m like, ‘Hello? It’s the perfect role,’” Momoa said in the interview, which was posted to his Instagram. “I mean, listen. If they call and ask me to play him, it’s a f*** yeah. I haven’t received that call, so I don’t want to put any fake news out there, but if they ever call me and ask me to play, or ask me to audition, I’m there.”
Momoa captioned his post with, “They called.”
Momoa’s Lobo will be introduced in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is slated to star House of the Dragon actor Milly Alcock in the titular role as Kara Zor-El.
Production on the superhero film, which is being directed by Craig Gillespie (Dumb Money) and also features Matthias Schoenaerts as villain Krem of the Yellow Hill and Eve Ridley as Ruthye Mary Knolle, begins next month.
Slated to hit theatres in 2026, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow will be the second film in Gunn and Safran’s revamped DCU slate, which kicks off next summer with Superman.
“We’re going to turn that into a big, science-fiction epic film,” Gunn said of the Supergirl movie last year. “Superman is a guy who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents, whereas Supergirl, in this story, she is a character who is raised on a chunk of Krypton. She watched everybody around her perish in some terrible way. So she’s a much more jaded character.”
After Dwayne Johnson’s attempt to reshape the DC cinematic universe with Black Adam backfired in 2022, Gunn and Safran were named as the new co-heads of DC Studios. In addition to hiring David Corenswet as their new Superman, the pair will cast their own Batman, as well as other notable heroes from the pages of DC Comics.
With all the changes afoot, in an interview with Postmedia earlier this year, Momoa still left the door open to bring his trident-rod wielding hero into Gunn and Safran’s DCU.
“I don’t know if my character is ended forever. I don’t see it that way, but there’s one person that’s played Aquaman and that’s me, so we’re not reinventing that one,” he said. “It was an amazing run … I’m excited for what they’re going to be doing, but that was a hard thing to do. Aquaman was the laughing stock of comics in the DC universe. It was a hard thing to take on and make a fan favourite. But it was cool to see brown-skinned children looking up (to me) and thinking that was a really cool thing. I didn’t have that growing up and it was a beautiful feeling to be at the forefront of that.”
Momoa, who was effusive in his praise to Snyder for hiring him to play the underwater hero more than a decade ago, was also open to returning as Aquaman in another Justice League film to square off against the Legion of Doom, which includes Lex Luthor, Black Manta, Brainiac, Riddler, Scarecrow, and other fearsome DC villains.
“Seeing all the bad guys together and seeing us come in would be awesome. If that s*** happens, they better let me in. I’d definitely like to come riding in on a tidal wave to whoop some ass,” he told Postmedia.