After the end of the DCEU and his take on Aquaman, Jason Momoa could be lined up to play Lobo for James Gunn in a move that could hurt them both.

As we enter 2024, we are also entering a new era for DC films. The connected universe of DC films that has defined the last decade for the studio (often called the DCEU) has officially come to an end, after a year of one lackluster release after another. These releases culminated in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman, which at one point would have been considered a surefire hit. However, though The Lost Kingdom may not be the disaster that The Flash was, the film is still struggling at the box office and will finish its theatrical run far below the billion-dollar box office heights of the first film.

The new creative head of DC Studios moving forward is James Gunn, who has already made a name for himself in the comic-book movie space by directing all three Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel, as well as 2021’s The Suicide Squad for DC and creating the spin-off Peacemaker series that followed in early 2022. While Gunn’s new DCU doesn’t officially kick off in theaters until Superman: Legacy releases in the summer of 2025, some elements of the DCEU – such as Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller and other characters from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker – are going to be retrofitted to fit into this newly established universe.

One other major actor that has played a consistent role in the DC universe of the last decade is Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman in a number of different standalone and team-up films. Though Momoa’s Aquaman is almost certainly not going to return in the new DCU, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Momoa won’t be involved. For over a year now, speculation has been running rampant that Gunn and DC are considering bringing the actor back in a different role: Lobo, the space-faring, motor-cycle riding alien bounty hunter that has been a fan-favorite character for decades. Bringing Momoa on board as Lobo might be some of the best comic-book character casting in recent memory, though it could also be a major detriment to the establishing of the new DCU. Here’s how:

Momoa’s History with DC and Aquaman

 

Jason Momoa was first announced to be playing the role of Aquaman way back in the summer of 2014. Though he had initially auditioned for the role of Batman in Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the director opted to cast Momoa as Aquaman in order to further lay the groundwork for the Justice League movie that the DCEU was building toward. The first look at Momoa’s Aquaman came in early 2015, as Snyder posted a desaturated image on social media that showed Momoa’s tattooed version of the character with the phrase “United the Seven” overlaid on top.While he only had a brief cameo in Batman v. Superman, Momoa was fully introduced as Aquaman in 2017’s Justice League. Though the reaction to that film was mixed, to say the least, Momoa’s take on Aquaman was a clear bright spot. The next year, Momoa continued his run with the character in his first solo film, which was directed by James Wan. 2018’s Aquaman was an unexpectedly major hit, as it became the only film in the entire DCEU to gross more than a billion dollars at the box office. In the years since, Momoa was also featured in an expanded role in Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021, before his final run with the character in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom hit theaters in late 2023.

Though Momoa has never been officially cast as Lobo, he does also have a bit of a history of association with the role. Before he was cast as Aquaman, there was already a lot of conversation from fans online about how perfect he would be in the role of Lobo, as he was just coming off of his breakout role as Khal Drogo in HBO’s Game of Thrones as well as the lead in the 2011 remake of Conan the Barbarian. When the first gray image of Momoa’s Aquaman was released, many people were commenting on how he still looked more like Lobo than any other DC character.Since Gunn has come aboard DC, there has been a constant stream of rumors and speculation about Momoa transitioning to the role of Lobo, which were compounded with a report from The Hollywood Reporter, which added fuel to that fire in late 2022. As of now, no official announcement has been made, though Momoa has stated that he believes Lobo is “the perfect role” and he would be excited about the opportunity, while producer and DC Studios co-head Peter Safran said that Momoa will “always have a home at DC.”

He’d Be Great for Lobo, but Would It Confuse Audiences?

 

All of these years of discussion about Momoa potentially playing Lobo aren’t out of nowhere. Genuinely, he would be perfect for the role. In a lot of ways, his take on Aquaman already embodies a lot of the same characteristics of Lobo. He’s a gruff and tough kind of dude that can frequently be found hanging out in bars, and he finds a little too much joy in beating people to a pulp in his free time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We would actually argue that Momoa bringing that energy to Aquaman is a big part of why his version of the character has been so successful. Aquaman often used to be the butt of a lot of jokes, but Momoa’s interpretation of the character changed that association and wound up making him one of the coolest characters in DC’s arsenal to a lot of viewers.

The downside here is that, if Momoa were to be cast as Lobo now, it would verge a bit close to what he’s already been doing. His take on Aquaman has been so similar to Lobo that seeing him transition into Lobo now wouldn’t feel all that different. It would just be Jason Momoa doing a lot of the same things he’s already been doing over the last decade, only this time he would be painted gray. Not only would that make the introduction of Lobo feel less special than it should be, it would also be a detriment to Momoa’s career. Over the last few years, Momoa has proven that he can genuinely be a great actor who also excites audiences and entices them to come out to theaters.Just this year, he was a major factor in the success of the newest Fast and Furious film, and his performance as Duncan Idaho in 2021’s Dune was a major high for him. Now that Aquaman is behind him, we’d love to see Momoa continue to branch out and expand his career, rather than just running in place with a new DC role that is nearly identical to his previous one.

While Momoa’s personality was one of the biggest positives to come out of the DCEU, the new DCU that Gunn is building needs to do its own thing. If Momoa is cast as Lobo, then the DCU would risk feeling too similar to the old DC, which audiences have already rejected. If Gunn’s universe is going to have any chance of succeeding, there needs to be a clear separation between the abandoned DCEU and the rebooted DCU that is being established in Superman: Legacy. This is already put in peril to some degree by bringing the likes of Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller back, but she was a much smaller part of the DCEU than Jason Momoa was. Lobo is certainly an interesting character, and we would love to see what kind of role he could fill in the new DCU (especially under Gunn’s guidance), but at this point, that window should be closed for Momoa. As great as he’d be as the character, Momoa’s involvement in the new DCU would only complicate things more than they need to be.