Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a 2023 American superhero film based on DC Comics featuring the character Aquaman. Produced by DC Studios, Atomic Monster, the Safran Company, and Domain Entertainment, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the sequel to Aquaman (2018), and the 15th and final film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Directed by James Wan from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, the film stars Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman, who must work with his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to prevent Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) from killing his family and using the cursed Black Trident to overheat the world while searching for the lost seventh kingdom of the seas. Amber Heard, Randall Park, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Martin Short, and Nicole Kidman also star in supporting roles.
Momoa pitched a story for an Aquaman sequel during production of the first film. Wan did not want to rush a sequel but agreed in January 2019 to oversee development. Johnson-McGoldrick signed on to return as screenwriter a month later, and Wan was confirmed to be returning as director in August 2020. He said the film would expand on Aquaman’s worldbuilding, have a more serious tone, and feature themes such as climate change. It is a buddy comedy between Aquaman and Orm, and was inspired by the Silver Age of Comic Books with a retro science fiction vibe similar to the works of animator Ray Harryhausen and the horror films of the 1960s, specifically Planet of the Vampires (1965). Wan announced the sequel’s title in June 2021, ahead of the start of filming at the end of the month. Filming concluded in January 2022, taking place in the United Kingdom, Hawaii, Los Angeles, and New Jersey, with additional filming in New Zealand.