Director James Wan confirms Willem Dafoe won’t appear in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
The new trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom brings back most of the key characters from the 2018 film. Jason Momoa reprises his role as Arthur Curry, alongside Temuera Morrison as Tom Curry, Nicole Kidman as Atlanna, Amber Heard as Mera, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, and Patrick Wilson as Orm. However, Willem Dafoe’s Nuidis Vulko, who played a significant mentor role to Arthur, is notably absent from the sneak peek.
In a conversation with EW, Wan says, “Willem is not in this one, no. Part of the reason was because his schedule did not work out for us. But what that allowed me to do was expand on Atlanna’s role. Atlanna in this one ultimately becomes Arthur’s advisor. Because Arthur’s not from this world, she helps him better understand the world and the politics of how things work.”
At the end of the first Aquaman movie, Arthur defeated Orm and became the King of Atlantis, while Orm was taken to prison. In the new movie, Arthur and Orm team up, even though they don’t really like each other, to fight a powerful supervillain named Black Manta. He is after revenge and has a dangerous weapon called the Black Trident, which lets him control a scary ancient evil.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will hit theatres on December 20.
