The Aquaman Standalone Has DC’s New 52 As It’s “Touchstone”

DC fans might have been a bit surprised when Warner Brothers announced that it had cast Jason Momoa as the DC Extended Universe's Aquaman, not because the Game of Thrones star wasn't capable of playing the role but because the actor seemed like a jump from the comics.

However, it seems like the upcoming Aquaman movie is actually going to take a whole lot of notes from a specific source – Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis run on Arthur Curry in DC Comics' New 52 series.

CBR was one of the news outlets able to visit Aquaman's set, and during their little sojourn, the publication got to talk with the film's producer Peter Safran. According to Safran, though the Aquaman standalone isn't a direct adaptation of Johns and Reis' comic book series, the New 52 run is "our touchstone and our starting point."

"The New 52 version of Aquaman was definitely our touchstone and our starting point," Safran explained. "Even though the film is not a direct adaptation of that, that was certainly, in terms of his origin, who he is: that Tom Curry is his father and Atlanta is his mother, who Orm is, etc. That all comes from the New 52. And, there are certainly creature elements from it, from the Trench. So, that was our biggest influence."

For those who haven't read the series yet, Johns and Reis' run in the New 52 has Aquaman going against his half-brother Orm for the Atlantean throne – a conflict which is going to be the very center of Wan's Aquaman movie. Black Manta's (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) going to be in the film too, though he's pretty much going to be a secondary villain in the film.

Aquaman premieres on December 21, 2018.

Read: Aquaman Is Going To Change DC Comic Book Fan's Perspective Of Arthur Curry Forever