Warning: Spoilers for Wonder Woman below.

Wonder Woman is in theaters, and it confirms that DC and Warner Bros. are officially leaning into the mythology side of their shared universe. Not only is Diana the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and Zeus, her first solo outing has her battling her half-brother Ares. None of this is metaphorical: These are literal Greek gods utilizing magic. Despite fears — and rumors — to the contrary, Diana is not Kryptonian, which was somehow floated as a ‘more grounded’ origin than her comic book one. Because aliens are believable but gods are not?

But while Wonder Woman rightly focused on Diana’s origin, there was a nod to another member of the Justice League. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, the Trident of Neptune makes an official appearance. When Hippolyta is telling her daughter a sanitized version of the historical events that led to the creation of Themyscira, a storybook comes to life. On top of Mount Olympus the gods stand in a formation reminiscent of the how the Justice League is presented in marketing material. First of all, there is no way that visual was an accident. Second, Poseidon is front-and-center with the trident that is now in the possession of Aquaman.

Wonder Woman goes to great pains to stress how much Diana doesn’t know about her own origin and the history of the gods. Hippolyta talks of how Ares killed the gods and Zeus sacrificed himself to create the godkiller weapon. But how ‘dead’ is dead to a god? In the New 52 comics — which Warner Bros. appears to be pulling heavily from — Poseidon is alive and well and at war with Hera (and the other gods) over who will rule Olympus.



Which brings us to Aquaman. In most versions of the comics, Poseidon grants the Trident of Neptune to the rightful ruler of Atlantis — in this case, Arthur Curry, the son of Queen Atlanna of Atlantis and either the human Tom Curry or the Atlantean sorcerer Atlan. Having Poseidon in possession of the Trident in the storybook but with Aquaman in the Justice League indicates the god of the sea granted it to Arthur at some point. Now, if the film version of Aquaman is the spawn of two Atlanteans, that could mean Poseidon passed down the Trident centuries ago, as the denizens of the underwater kingdom seem to age much slower than land-dwelling humans. But if the film has Aquaman as the biological son of the human Tom Curry, then Poseidon must be alive (if not well) since Aquaman would only be a few decades old.

Of course, there’s also a third option. Rumors have popped up that perhaps Aquaman is simply the child of Atlanna and Poseidon, making him a cousin to Wonder Woman. That origin has its merits. For one, it adds symmetry to the origin of Themyscira: If Zeus created a secret haven of warriors, why wouldn’t his brothers do the same? Where the Amazons are duty-bound to protect the world of men, perhaps Poseidon wished his people to protect the seas. This would also give Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa an interesting and fun dynamic. Already, they seem to be having the most fun. Momoa is the highlight of the Justice League trailer and having two demigod cousins teaming up to save the world sounds like exactly the kind of buddy cop/superhero genre mash-up the world needs.

No matter which origin Warner Bros. chooses though, one thing is clear: Poseidon isn’t as dead as Hippolyta led her daughter to believe. Which raises the question: How many other gods survived Ares’ wrath?