Only a month or so away from production, DC’s Aquaman is still adding cast members and the latest name tossed onto the roster is a doozy for action fans. According to and later confirmed by director James Wan himself, Dolph Lundgren has joined the cast. The veteran action star will be taking on the role of King Nereus of Xebel. While said character was an outright villain in the comics, with design’s on the titular hero’s wife Mera, his role will be a more neutral one in the coming film.
Dolph is neither a stranger to comic book adaptations nor sword & sorcery films. In regards to the former, Lundgren played the titular role in 1989’s The Punisher and most recently has been seen as the villainous mobster Konstantin Kovar on The CW’s “Arrow“. As for the latter, he was the star of 1987’s Masters of the Universe and also took the lead in 2011’s Dungeon Siege film, In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds.
More recently, Lundgren has been the star of a number of DTV offerings and the occasional limited release, as well as having a supporting role in The Expendables franchise. Outside of that series and a fleeting appearance in Hail Caesar!, his appearance in Aquaman will mark his first turn in a theatrical wide release since 1995’s Johnny Mnemonic. If you’re looking to catch up on his post-’90s work beyond The Expendables trilogy, I’d suggest checking out the likes of Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, and Command Performance. While some of his DTV outings were clearly the result of a studio contract, some of them are also quite good.
Aquaman is based on the comic book character created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris. It is the sixth installment in the DC Extended Universe. The picture is directed by James Wan (The Conjuring, Furious Seven), from a screenplay by Geoff Johns, James Wan, David Leslie Johnson, and Will Beall. The film stars Jason Momoa as ‘Arthur Curry/Aquaman’, Amber Heard as ‘Mera’, Patrick Wilson as ‘Orm/Ocean Master’, Yahya Abul-Mateen II as ‘Black Manta’, Willem Dafoe as ‘Dr. Nuidis Vulko’, Nicole Kidman as ‘Queen Atlanna’, Temuera Morrison as ‘Thomas Curry’, and Dolph Lundgren as ‘King Nereus’.
Aquaman arrives in theaters on December 21st, 2018.
