It’s funny how things work out. A while back, when Jason Momoa was announced as the actor for Justice League and Aquaman, I wasn’t sure he was the right guy for the role. Momoa may actually be a human-sized action figure, but his acting skills seemed a little rough around the edges, and the last thing that Zack Snyder needed was a mediocre performance from one of the core players in the DC Cinematic Universe. And now, months later, Momoa is one of the few parts of Justice League I’m not worried about. Like I said, funny how things work out.

In a recent interview with GQ (via ComingSoon.net), Momoa admitted that he feels lucky to be playing the superhero onscreen for the first time. While Batman and Superman may be no strangers to screens big and small, Momoa gets to do something fresh with the character of Aquaman:

We’ve never really seen anything from this guy before, so it’s fun to have a level playing field. There aren’t like four Aquamans before me. I get to set the tone for it… The guy was never really accepted on land, and he was never really accepted in Atlantis. He’s a half-breed. But he’s the best of both worlds. He just doesn’t know how to handle his powers. So it’s kind of a coming of age for a young man to a man, or a man to a king. He’s lost a lot of things and he’s got to cope. He’s an outsider.

While that soundbite might seem a little cliched  —  I mean, aren’t all superheroes kind of outsiders? Isn’t that what makes them superheroes?  —  there’s no denying that Momoa is running with his opportunity to do a fresh thing with the character. Momoa’s Aquaman is essentially a crossfit bro who is, like, totally jacked to help Batman fight flying bug monsters; somehow, he’s found a way to bridge the gap between superhero archetype and the brooding, self-serious characters of Snyder’s DC universe. Just like Iron Man turned Tony Stark into one of the A-list characters in the Marvel universe, here’s looking forward to when Justice League makes Aquaman the coolest kid in town.

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