Will Aquaman Be the Worlds of DC’s Black Panther?

In the trailer for Warner Bros.' and James Wan’s Worlds of DC movie Aquaman, fans noticed some similarities to Marvel Studios' and Ryan Coogler’s MCU movie Black Panther. With similar imagery, themes, and villainess motivations, it’s not hard to draw comparisons between the two films. Both movies feature superheroes who would be kings, advanced civilizations, and family members who seek to take control of said civilizations and use their resources to wage war on the rest of the word.

In the context of Black Panther, T’Challa (the titular Black Panther) must ascend to the position of king of the African nation of Wakanda, a highly advanced country hidden from the rest of world. T’Challa must participate in a challenge for the throne where he fights and defeats the leader of a rival tribe. Later, an African-American special operative by the name of Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens arrives in Wakanda, revealing himself to be T’Challa’s previously unknow cousin, Prince N’Jakada. Killmonger was abandoned by T’Challa’s father, T’Chaka, after he killed his brother and Killmonger's father, N'Jobu. Seeking revenge, Killmonger challenges T’Challa and appears to kill T'Challa and take his throne. Killmonger then states his desire to use Wakanda’s advanced technology to wage war on the rest of world, citing the injustices committed against black people across history. T’Challa then makes a triumphant return, revealing that he survived the challenge. This is followed by his loyalists attacking Killmonger’s forces. During another battle for the throne, T’Challa definitively kills Killmonger and becomes king once more. T’Challa later realizes, however, that on some level Killmonger was right. There are disenfranchised and underprivileged people in the world, and Wakanda has a responsibility to use its resources to help all peoples, not just themselves (a bigger scale representation of Marvel’s old adage: “with great power comes great responsibility”).

Based on what we’ve seen and heard about the Aquaman movie, it seems as though we could be seeing a similar story being told. The little information we have on the film tells us that Arthur Curry (the eponymous Aquaman), the son of a human lighthouse keeper and Queen of Atlantis, is forced to make a claim for the throne of Atlantis when he’s informed that his half-brother, Orm (The Ocean Master), intends on uniting the seven undersea kingdoms in order to declare war on the surface world as recompense for humanity’s penchant for polluting Earth’s oceans. At the same time, Arthur is being pursued by Black Manta, a mercenary who wants revenge on Aquaman for killing his father, a pirate captain. In that small description alone, we’ve got a superhero who would be king, an advanced nation hidden from the rest of the world, a challenge for the throne, a highly trained soldier seeking revenge, and a surprisingly justifiable reason for the villain of the movie to wage war on the world. The mounting evidence tells us that this upcoming movie is going to be an almost carbon copy of the immensely popular Marvel film. Now, the question is: Was this intentional?

I would speculate that no, the undeniable similarities are not intentional, just a happy coincidence. Black Panther was released in theaters on February 16th, 2018, ten months before the scheduled theatrical release of Aquaman, on December 21st, 2018. There’s no possible way that Warner Bros. would have been able to come up with or alter the script of Aquaman to match that of Black Panther. Both movies finished filming back in 2017; both unaware of the content of the other. Coincidences like this are not uncommon, such as in the films, Armageddon and Deep Impact (two 1998 movies that both feature asteroids about to make contact with Earth, potentially destroying it. In both, teams of astronauts are sent to destroy them with nuclear weapons). Now, I don’t anticipate Aquaman being exactly like Black Panther. I don’t think Orm’s motives will resonate with the public the way Killmonger’s did, and I don’t think that Aquaman will become the phenomenon that Black Panther did (much as I hope it will, given my reverence for the character of Aquaman). Plus, despite the fact that this movie is going to once again feature a potentially world ending threat (a plot device that I recently wrote the Worlds of DC should largely move away from), Aquaman boasts a story based on Geoff Johns’ acclaimed New 52 run on the titular character with influences from adventure movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone. All that suggests that we’re in for an incredibly enjoyable movie that’s different from what we’ve seen from the Worlds of DC so far. This already makes Aquaman a highly anticipated movie for me.