It’s almost a guarantee for a superhero movie, or any highly merchandisable blockbuster franchise these days: new movie in the series, new costume for the hero. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is no exception, and we’ve got a look at the new suit in action.
Revealed by returning director James Wan and star Jason Momoa over the weekend, alongside the orange-gold and sea-green suit from the first movie — adapting Aquaman’s iconic comics costume — in the sequel Arthur will also wear a “Stealth” suit version of his gear, which trades the brightly-coloured original for a dark colour palette, accented by silver armour padding along the arms and thighs, and a much sleeker profile.
Wan describes the new suit, designed by David Leslie Johnson, as being “Atlantean tech based on [a] cephalopod’s camouflaging ability,” and taking inspiration from a similarly toned suit Aquaman wore in the comics, the blue camouflage introduced in Neal Pozner and Craig Hamilton’s 1986 miniseries. But one interesting design evolution aside from the coloration is the torso, which is just… well, chiselled in a way that is meant to reflect Arthur’s own body, but is really just a suit of bones stealth abs on top of his actual abs.
There’s no doubt Jason Momoa of course, has quite the physique underneath all this costuming — we got to see plenty enough of that in the first film as well — but there’s something kind of delightfully retro and cheesy about the sheer amount of sculpted musculature on the new suit compared to the first movie’s costuming for Arthur.
Throw in the darker colour palette and it really does feel like a throwback to superhero movie costuming tropes from the ‘90s, with more than a little camp thrown in for good measure. And really, if there’s going to be a DC sequel with some retro cheese in it? It’s gonna be the one that’s following up the movie with Pitbull’s take on Toto, isn’t it?
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is currently scheduled to release in theatres on December 26, 2022. While you wait, why not check out all the sci-fi, horror and fantasy films coming to screens before the year is out.