ATLANNA: As long as I am queen, you will preserve the peace.
MAN: You, my boy, are the key to all of my research.
CORSON: I think all of us have wanted to do an Aquaman story.
The big question:
What's gonna be a big enough story that we're gonna be able...
...to sound the alarm and get the Justice League back together?
ORM: This could be us.
This could be Atlantis.
Because you don't start with the Atlanteans marching onto dry land...
...to take over all the world.
We have to start somewhere else.
[EXPLOSION]
CARLIN: They were happy to live separately up until now.
ORM: See what the surface dwellers are capable of?
ROMANO: We haven't done a full story...
...that really was about how Aquaman came to be Aquaman.
SHAZAM: Gills? As in mermaids?
WONDER WOMAN: As in Atlantis.
We were lucky enough to base this on the adaptation...
...of Geoff Johns' brilliant "Throne of Atlantis."
TUCKER: In that story, Aquaman is already Aquaman...
...and his connection with the Justice League is already there.
In our story, the Justice League hasn't met Aquaman yet.
[THUNDER CRASHES]
We decided to start from square one...
...set him up as a person and then start his journey.
We meet him as Arthur Curry, and, uh, his father has just died.
He's kind of been only living half of his life. He's been living on the surface.
You can tell he's at odds with himself because he likes to bar-brawl.
ARTHUR: You know, life isn't fair.
I never believed it before, but I believe it now.
ROMANO: He likes to go fight. He has all this energy and this anger.
I think the whole piece starts with a pretty good-sized fight in a bar.
ARTHUR: Leave him alone.
We're talking.
Oh!
Thanks, guys. I needed to blow off some steam.
I always think it's super interesting to see what makes a hero.
How do we get there?
How do we get to the point where he becomes Aquaman?
CARLIN: He does know that there's something different about him.
He does know that there's a connection to the ocean.
He keeps seeing this woman in the ocean that swims away from him...
...but she seems to keep an eye on him.
CORSON: Well, what's fun is, we know Arthur is a man of two worlds.
Arthur doesn't know that yet.
He's trying to figure out who exactly he is and what he is.
And that became a really fun character...
...because I don't think we have one yet...
...that, really, whose core is anger and frustration...
...and just wanting to lash out at this world.
Then we get this whole thing where we get to bring in the Justice League.
In our last film, the Justice League just barely started working together.
Now we have an instance where they've got to work together a little bit more.
You know, you have the Flash and you have Green Lantern.
There's a kind of a love-interest thing happening...
...with Superman and Wonder Woman.
Then you have the Batman thing, who's always the reluctant group joiner.
BATMAN: Lantern. GREEN LANTERN: Hi, spooky.
-You don't write, you don't call. BATMAN: I'm busy.
CARLIN: We're striving to show how each Justice League member is different.
I mean, we have characters with mythological backgrounds...
...we have characters with their galactic backgrounds...
...we have characters with magical backgrounds.
Who gets along, who doesn't get along...
...those weaknesses and those cracks are really where we can see character.
ROMANO: Unless they all work together...
...they're not gonna be able to help this major issue that's not just:
Are we gonna save Gotham? Are we gonna save Metropolis?
Are we--? This is the entire world.
CYBORG: Locate missiles.
COMPUTER: Scanning.
-Not found. CYBORG: That's not good.
GREEN LANTERN: What does a mythical, mystical undersea world need with missiles?
BATMAN: Unless it was to attack us.
TUCKER: Because of the events that happened in Justice League: War..
...the king of Atlantis was killed.
ORM: This is terrorism.
No. This is an act of war.
So there's a very real understandable anger towards surface dwellers.
What would you have me do, Orm?
Sound the drums of war solely to honor your father's memory?
Don't bother. You didn't honor him when he was alive.
CARLIN: The evil begins with Orm...
...when he goes against his mother's wishes and the wishes of his queen at that time.
ORM: They kill our race.
They poison our oceans.
They will destroy this planet and take Atlantis with it.
TUCKER: He has a vendetta against the surface world...
...and he really wants to destroy the surface world.
He's smart. He's a brilliant Machiavellian conniver.
So it became about Orm's plan to take the missiles...
...and use them against his own people.
Our time has come.
I will bring our world...
...crashing down upon theirs!
CORSON: So I think that's what's really exciting about it...
...is being able to take these really big broad strokes that Geoff put together...
...and also add this very personal, very emotional...
...almost Shakespearean story about Arthur Curry.
MERA: Atlantis thirsts for a new perspective.
Someone who understands the surface world...
...and will lead us into the next century.
The queen needs a beacon, Arthur.
Maybe it's you.
ROMANO: Good. Let's run it again, 4:46 and onward.
All my life, I felt like there was something wrong with me.
LANTER: I relate to the sarcasm of Arthur Curry...
...and I relate to the fact the he is unlike maybe some other superheroes...
...that they wake up and they're a superhero. This guy's like, "What the hell is going on?"
WITWER: He's a very, uh, troubled young man...
...who yells a lot.
My father, your king.
For Atlantis!
CROWD: For Atlantis!
I am queen, and war is not in my plans.
She's the mother of Arthur and Orm. But she's not a grandmother.
You know, she's not an ancient voice.
She's gotta have authority and femininity.
O'CONNELL: I'm the sole survivor of my planet.
If I had the chance to save my world and meet one of my own race...
...even for a moment, that would be enough.
Jerry O'Connell plays Superman on camera. He's perfect for it.
And because he is a voiceover actor as well as an on-camera actor...
...that was some of the easiest casting I've ever had to do.
Arthur Curry. I'm the Flash.
We've been looking for you.
GORHAM: I think he really loves being a part of this team.
Like he-- He loves being one of the guys.
He thinks Batman is awesome.
Dispatch a team to a lighthouse in Mercy Reef, coordinates attached.
Find Arthur Curry fast.
He's Batman. He's badass.
Hey, uglies, over here.
I love doing this stuff. Every second of it.
ARTHUR: I saw her, Dad.
I saw my mother. She was watching me in the water.
CORSON: This is not the Aquaman that we think we know going into this movie.
This is Aquaman before.
You know, this is Aquaman Begins.
This is Arthur Curry all the way back...
...looking for the man that he will soon become.
AQUAMAN: Join me and we will bridge those worlds in peace!
ROMANO: This particular Aquaman has real issues...
...true human issues...
...and, like all of us, is trying to find, "Where's our family?
Where's our work? And where's our place in the world?"
I'll tear you apart!
TUCKER: My goal is to make these feel very relatable...
...as interpersonal dramas.
With this movie, people really get a different idea of what Aquaman is about...
...if they had a preconceived idea about him.
They're gonna know who Aquaman is as a person.
GREEN LANTERN: I'll tell you, Flash, I've seen my share of weirdo crapola in this job.
But Atlantis? Come on.
CYBORG: Man needs a code name.
SHAZAM: Yeah? Well, online they're calling him "Aquaman."