Rumors that Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa would star as Aquaman in the nascent Warner Bros. DC Comics-based shared universe began to pop up online in 2014. The studio confirmed the rumors late in the same year, but in the meantime, the actor went to great lengths to cover it up.
We can't really blame Momoa, who had been kept in the dark right up until his audition. During a recent interview with the Hindustan Times, he admitted that he was baffled about the test, because Zack Snyder had him reading Batman’s lines rather than Aquaman’s!
The actor was fairly certain that he wasn't under consideration for that role, since Ben Affleck had already signed on. Momoa said that he assumed that he would play one of the Caped Crusader’s adversaries, but then the director spelled out what he really wanted:
When Zack first approached me, it was a bit of a mystery, because when I went in for the audition, he wanted me to read for Batman, and Ben [Affleck] had already been cast in the role by that point. So I knew something fishy was going on, and just read the lines with a lot of attitude, like I didn't care what was on the page [laughs]! And then Zack said to me, “Do you know who I want you to play?” I said, “Oh, yeah, I'll be a villain, or some bad dude who comes in and fights Batman. Sounds like fun.” He said, “I want you to play Aquaman.”
Momoa debuted as Arthur Curry in last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He’ll reprise the role in next month's Justice League, and then again in 2018's Aquaman.
