‘Aquaman: King Of Atlantis’: HBO Max Announces A New Animated Miniseries Produced By James Wan

Fans may get a little more ‘Aquaman’ before the release of the live-action ‘Aquaman 2’ in winter 2022.  At the TWC press tour, the upcoming streaming service announced that it had ordered a three-episode animated miniseries entitled ‘Aquaman: King of Atlantis’, which will be executive produced James Wan, the director of the superhero’s 2018 box office hit, which starred Jason Momoa in the title role.  Wan produces via his Atomic Monster production company.

Each of these three episodes will be a standalone story, and it appears that the tales kick off shortly after the first film.  The first episode focuses on Arthur Curry’s first day on the job as King of Atlantis.

Via EW:

“He’s got a LOT of catching up to do. Luckily, he has his two royal advisors to back him up – Vulko, the scholar, and Mera, the water controlling warrior-princess. Between dealing with unscrupulous surface dwellers, elder evils from beyond time and his own half-brother who wants to overthrow him, Aquaman is going to have to rise to the challenge and prove to his subjects, and to himself, that he’s the right man for the trident!”

It was not announced who would voice the lead character, but Momoa lent his voice to the animated Aquaman in ‘The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part’.  Willem Dafoe played Vulko and Amber Heard portrayed Mera in the movie.

Victor Courtright (‘ThunderCats Roar!’) and Marly Halpern-Graser (‘Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’) will serve as showrunners and co-executive producers, while ‘Aquaman: King of Atlantis’ will also be executive produced by Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear (‘Annabelle Comes Home’), Rob Hackett (‘Swamp Thing’) and Sam Register (‘Teen Titans Go!’).

HBO Max is committed to delivering a wide range of DC Comics-based live-action material — ‘Strange Adventures’ (a sci-fi anthology featuring Adam Strange), a ‘Green Lantern’ series, the comedy, ‘DC Super Hero High’, the second season of ‘Doom Patrol’ (shared with DC Universe), a rumored ‘Blue Beetle’ series, and the entire back catalog of DC theatrical movies.  This has caused many to question the longevity of the current, more limited DC Universe series.

HBO Max launches this spring.

The timing of this series seems a bit late, as animated series based on movies are usually released closer to a film’s release.  However, Warner Brothers (HBO Max’s parent company) made that “mistake” when they released ‘Green Lantern: The Animated Series’ in the fall of 2011, just after the release of the live-action ‘Green Lantern’ movie that summer, which was expected to be a massive success.

Unfortunately, the movie was an infamous disaster, which sank ‘The Animated Series’, which was adored by viewers and critics.  After the movie flopped and stores were drowning in unsold ‘GL’ toys, they refused to buy the toys planned for ‘The Animated Series’.  That led to the show only lasting one season, which ended on a gut-wrenching cliffhanger.

Maybe WB wanted to make sure the ‘Aquaman’ movie did well before investing in a cartoon.  But with this announcement arriving now, it sounds as though ‘Aquaman: King of Atlantis’ will arrive around the time of the release of ‘Aquaman 2’, which could work out as well.

Aquaman is actually the second DC superhero to ever appear in animation, following Superman, on the 1967 Saturday morning series, ‘The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure’ produced by Filmation (which you can read all about here).  He later co-starred on Hanna Barbera’s ‘Super Friends’ for almost a decade in the 1970s-80s, and later made appearances on ‘Superman: The Animated Series’, ‘Justice League’/’Justice League Unlimited’, ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’, ‘Young Justice’, and most recently, on the DC Universe series ‘Harley Quinn’, along with various other animated shorts, TV shows, and movies.

‘Aquaman: King of Atlantis’ has just been announced, so check back for updates as they arrive!

Meanwhile, ‘Aquaman 2’ is scheduled to swim into theaters on March 26, 2019.