Well perhaps there is some hope for the ‘Aquaman’ movie after all. I mean, James Wan is a pretty good director, and they have a well-rounded cast that includes Jason Momoa (who I personally don’t care for but I know can play quite the bad-ass), Patrick Wilson as Orm the Ocean Master, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, Nicole Kidman as Aquaman’s mother, and Willem Dafoe as Vulco. And now, they have added another cast member that adds to the quirky awesomeness of the cast, Dolph Lungren!
Lungren will be playing King Nereus, a relatively recent addition to Aquaman’s Rogue’s Gallery, who first appeared in the comics in 2013. For those not in the know, Nereus in the comics was a villain who led the Xebels, an exiled group of Atlanteans that Aquaman’s wife Mera was once a part of, who holds a pretty big grudge against the King of Atlantis.
According to the character description as told by The Hollywood Reporter:
“Lundgren will play King Nereus of the aquatic kingdom of Xebel, who claims Mera as his own and wants to kill Aquaman.”
Yet James Wan followed up a lot of the casting news claiming Lungren’s Nereus would be a villain by explaining that was not quite the case by posting the following on Twitter:
Not quite villain, but thank you :) https://t.co/LtqpcSanFL
— James Wan (@creepypuppet) April 13, 2017
It would be interesting to see Lungren play a comic book character in the film not a villain, especially since we already have Orm the Ocean Master and Black Manta in the film, and God knows ‘Aquaman’ has enough going against it without throwing in the curse of too many villains (plus we are already getting to see Lungren show off his villainous comic book character side over on ‘Arrow’). And since Nereus is so new to the DC canon, I agree with others who have stated it would be more acceptable to fans to alter the character for the film than to say, change someone like Black Mantis into an ally of Aquaman.
What are your thoughts on Dolph Lungren joining the cast as potential ally King Nereus? Does this make you want to see ‘Aquaman’ any more, or are you, like me, still on the fence about the whole thing because the DCEU is a mess, and ‘Aquaman’ is not exactly an amazing hero you want to see a movie about? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
