Written By: Nick Poulimenakos

While divisive, Man of Steel is the film that kicked off DC’s latest film franchise, the DC Extended Universe. While the film did little to connect to the broader DC canon, one fan theory had pointed to a certain aquatic DC hero making an appearance in the film. The theory sates that when Clark Kent risked his life to save several workers from a collapsing oil rig, and ends up knocked into the water, it was Aquaman who actually saves him and brought him back to shore. For years this theory has remained up in the air, until now.

Jason Momoa, who stars as Aquaman in Justice League, recently appeared on DC All Access where he confirmed that it was indeed Aquaman that brought Clark back to shore:

“In Man of Steel, when Henry [Cavill] is saving the oil rig and he’s holding that up, and all of a sudden he kind of floats up on the ocean, he’s [Zack] like ‘I had Aquaman save him so that they did cross paths at one point.’ So then when Bruce goes ‘You ever heard of…Superman?’ I have met him and we have crossed paths.”

While not a moment that is seen on screen, it is definitely a very cool Easter egg that is now confirmed to be canon. It’s unclear as to whether Snyder really did have Aquaman in mind when crafting the oil rig scene but it adds another layer of connectivity in the DCEU. The fan theory confirmation is reminiscent of Spider-Man: Homecoming confirming its own fan theory that Peter Parker actually appeared in Iron Man 2 and was saved by Tony Stark.

Aquaman made his first legitimate DCEU appearance in Batman V Superman, where he was shown to be one of several metahuman’s being watched by Lex Luthor. In Justice League, Batman will recruit Arthur Curry to be apart of his team to defend the Earth against Steppenwolf and his invading parademons.

Justice League hits theatres on November 16, 2017.