James Wan’s Aquaman film for DC is starting to gain a clearer picture as Patrick Wilson gets cast as Aquaman’s half-brother and key antagonist, Orm, aka Ocean Master. How Ocean Master plays into the film is still a mystery, but based on the comics, it’s likely he will be hungry for the throne of Atlantis.
Like many DC characters, Orm’s history is a bit complicated and has undergone some revisions. In the beginning, he was Aquaman’s fully human half-brother, the son of Arthur’s father and a human woman. After years of jealousy over his brother’s superpowers, Orm begins wearing a high-tech diving suit to breath underwater, and starts terrorizing the seven seas as a pirate.
In the New 52, Orm’s origins gets a revamp, becoming Arthur’s half-brother through his Atlantian mother. After Arthur was sent above-ground to live with his human father, Aquaman’s mother remarried and had a fully Atlantian child, Orm. After the Queen’s death, Aquaman and Ocean Master would fight for the Atlantis throne.
Ocean Master
DC’s new Extended Universe film has been described as an Indiana Jones-Style Swashbuckler where Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Amber Heard’s Mera go on a globe-trotting adventure. Wilson’s Ocean Master, for his part, will probably try and get in the way or find a way to use their adventure to become King of Atlantis.
The two were once allies in the alternate timeline created by the Flashpoint paradox, opening a possibility of a different take altogether for the two brothers.
Ocean Master is a pretty interesting choice for a film that at first sounded distanced from the Atlantis politics that have defined some of Aquaman’s recent comics. As a petender to the throne, Ocean Master will play a sibling rival to Aquaman, much like Loki is to Thor in Marvel’s Thor films. Time will tell how the relationship between the two shape up.
Aquaman is slated for a 2018 release.
