DC's and Warner Brothers casting of the DCEU Aquaman movie

[Blind Wedjat]

So I want to talk about the casting of the Aquaman movie so far, because I might have a bit of a problem with it. No I don't mean from a talent perspective, because they've got some pretty great actors in here (though I consider Momoa and Heard average). I mean from a social/racial perspective. Now before I get labelled a troll or a hater, I just want to say that Aquaman is the DCEU movie I'm looking forward to the most out of everything else (save for WW) and I can't wait to see what the movie offers from a visual perspective. However for me the casting raises a few flags, but I will admit this is (wild) speculation.

Now we know that Zack Synder/DC/WB wanted to make Aquaman a badass on film, as he's mostly treated as the butt of all jokes by the general audience and some comic book fans. James Wan has also stated that Aquaman is more of the Wolverine/badass loner type of the Justice League. So with that being considered, one could say it makes sense for an actor such as Jason Momoa to be chosen for the role. But when Jason himself talked about his casting, there's something else he brought up - his ethnicity:

The greatest thing for me is that Polynesians, our gods, Kahoali, Maui, all these water gods, so it’s really cool and a honor to be playing a [water] character. And there’s not too many brown superheroes, so I’m really looking forward to representing the Polynesians, the natives.


My family are some of the greatest water men on earth. I’m not, but I’m going to go train with them. But it’s really an honor just being a Polynesian. And water is the most important thing in this world and we all know it.

http://comicbook.com/2014/10/20/jaso...nks-standalon/

When Zack came to me, when I got a call in the room, I can't even tell you... I wish there was a camera rolling 'cause the last thing I expected him to say was Aquaman... And when I thought about it, that's a genius idea because my people are Kanaloa, Tagaloa and Maui. All these water gods. You get to respect all of that and you're like 'man, absolutely, he would be of that descent.' He's human and he's a god. I mean he's both. I want to see him struggle with the fact that he has these powers and he doesn't know how to handle them because he hasn't been trained.

https://www.comicbookmovie.com/aquam...quaman-a143182

From this, it can be inferred that the Polynesian identity of Jason Momoa's Arthur Curry/Aquaman is going to be an important part of the character (Jason Momoa is also part Hawaiian and was born there). This can also be further supported by the casting of Temuera Morrison as Thomas Curry, Aquaman's human father who is of Māori descent (Māori people are indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand). This is pretty good casting and with the changes they're making to the character, it makes sense (even though I'm pretty sure DCU Atlantis is closely associated with Greek myth and people). Now, this is were the casting stops making sense.

So far we have Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm/Ocean Master, and now Nicole Kidman as Atlanna (Aquaman's Atlantean mother). All of these actors are Caucasian. Now my question is, why have Atlanteans, and these specific characters, be played by Caucasians/look Caucasian? Sure it makes sense from a comic book accuracy standpoint, but you changed the race (and the appearance) of the main character, so why did you stop there? If we look at what we have seen so far as what is Atlantean culture, we have this:







These looks show different Polynesian tribal engravings and tattoos: we can see from the first image that Aquaman's body possesses spearhead (shoulders and biceps), shark teeth (arms) and Tiki (demigods that may have begun as humans or ancestors) mouth (hands) tattoos. These symbols represent courage and battle strength, guidance, ferocity, and power, as well as the Tiki deities respectively (the shark teeth tattoos are the symbol of Jason Momoa's aumakua, or family deity). The second and third image also show that Aquaman and Mera's armours also possess these same symbols as engravings, which means they are a part of Atlantean culture. But why is it that, so far, we are seeing non-Polynesian/Hawaiian actors--Caucasian actors--playing Atlanteans who are using Polynesian/Hawaiian culture? If we can infer that Arthur Curry gets these tattoos once he becomes the King of Atlantis, it would be that, again, the tattoos could mean the same things to Atlanteans as they mean to Polynesians.

While this is a very cool concept and design choice that ties in mysticism, myth and reality, would it not have been better if Atlanteans were portrayed by Polynesian actors? Is the Aquaman movie going to imply that Polynesian culture was derived from white-skinned Atlanteans? Is this not a form of culture appropriation, or at the very least, pushing a White Savior narrative? Isn't Jason Momoa being used as a token person of colour at what seems to me as a possibly poorly attempt at diversity and representation? Sure, it's nice to add some diversity to the Justice League, but look at the bigger picture: Jason Momoa is playing a Polynesian man who is possibly going to be shown part of his culture by people of white skin. I feel like if DC/WB wanted to showcase Polynesian culture in this way, they could have cast Polynesian actors as Atlanteans, kept Momoa as Aquaman but cast a white actor as his human father. This way, you could tell a story that shows that Atlanteans were the water gods of Jason Momoa's people, Aquaman finding out he's somewhat a demigod, show a fantastical nature of Polynesian myth and represent Polynesians on film in a major blockbuster.

Of course, I understand that there is a possibility that DC/WB might not go this route and have a good reason why they've done these things with this movie. Perhaps Arthur Curry somehow influenced Atlantean culture with his own, or perhaps Atlanna's love for Thomas made her change Atlantean culture (perhaps to even accommodate Arthur upon his return). But given that is also speculation, and I'm basing all i've seen on what we've been given so far, I feel like this is somewhat of a problem.

With all of that being said, I'm still really excited for the Aquaman. The costumes look beautiful, the visuals look to be promising, and the cast and crew are pretty great.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I thought Momoa was cast more for his look/talent/charm than diversity with the polynesian aspect being a happy accident.

I do agree with you on the missed opportunity but im more curious on what the polynesian community thinks about it.

[Agent Z]

We don't know if Arthur will be the only non-white Atlantian in the DCEU.