If it feels like we've been waiting years for Aquaman to take centre stage in Warner Bros' DC Extended Universe, it's because we have.

Game of Thrones' Khal Drogo – or Jason Momoa, as he is sometimes known – was hotly tipped for the role of Arthur Curry for some time before Warner let the cat out of the bag with its big Justice League announcements back in October 2014.

Warner Bros.

We had a glimpse of him in 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and he joined Ben Affleck's Batman, Henry Cavill's Superman, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller's Flash and Ray Fisher's Cyborg in Justice League in 2017.

Now Momoa is finally up for the Aquaman solo film. Make way for the King of the Seven Seas.

Aquaman movie trailer: Straight from Comic-Con

After keeping us waiting what seemed like an inordinately long time, Aquaman's first trailer debuted during Warner Bros' San Diego Comic-Con panel.

The teaser promises a classic origin for Arthur Curry – as well as some big fight scenes under the sea.

Aquaman movie production: Sea no evil

Warner Bros.

What's been keeping fans talking, however, is some chatting Aquaman himself did in Justice League. For some reason, when Momoa's Aquaman spoke to Amber Heard's Mera under the water, the two created a bubble of oxygen, despite being able to, you know, breathe underwater.

Aquaman director James Wan thinks comic-book fans, famous for not overreacting, are too hung up on the scene ("People are overthinking it") and promised that in his upcoming movie about the sea-faring superhero, "They're just gonna talk!"

Warner Bros.

While we're not sure if he's winding those fans up, Wan has also teased that his underwater world will include a gritty recreation of the infamous Super Friends scene of Aquaman riding a seahorse, juxtaposed with cannibal trench-dwellers, sea dragons and a giant octopus.

"The water world my movie takes place in is so separate and so far apart from previous DC movies it's like I'm making my own sci-fi fantasy film," Wan said. "This is a whole new underwater world nobody has seen before in live action."

Aquaman movie release date: Beyond Justice League

Warner Bros.

Momoa's name has been thrown around for years (Momoa claims that he was secretly cast as Aquaman five years ago), but they've kept him waiting for a solo movie until Justice League's traditional trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman had a go at the bat.

But Aquaman gets to go next now that Justice League is out of the way. Miller's The Flash was meant to come first, but has been delayed after losing a second director.

Aquaman was originally planned for release on October 5, but slipped back two months to December 21 before finally settling on December 14.

Filming began in early May 2017...

...and after a "super-complicated" production, wrapped in October.

Aquaman movie cast: Atlantis family tree

@ZackSnyder Twitter

We already have Jason Momoa, but who will be joining him in his underwater kingdom?

Amber Heard's Mera debuted alongside Aquaman in Justice League. She's an underwater princess from another dimension who is usually portrayed as our titular hero's partner/wife, although considering they only just met in Justice League, that might be jumping the gun at this point.

Heard has promised that the film is going to "honour the comic books" and says she's used DC's source material to shape one of the more underrated superheroes.

Warner Bros.

"We wanted to honour the comic books, I wanted to stick with how she's depicted in the comic books in a superficial way," she said. "I wanted to go full comic book as to how she looks."

"It's in the nuance of her personality where I wanted to push the boundaries," she added, insisting that Mera will not just be "making bubbles".

Nicole Kidman is returning to the scene of the superhero crime (it's almost 22 years since Batman Forever) as Aquaman's Atlantean mother Atlanna.

Warner Bros.

Willem Dafoe will play Nuidis Vulko, an Atlantean ally of Curry. And Power Rangers' Ludi Lin is on board as Aquaman's military ally Murk.

Temuera Morrison will play Arthur's human father, Thomas Curry. He is best known as Jango Fett (and all his clones) in the Star Wars prequels, but this is also his second time in a DC film after he played Abin Sur in Green Lantern.

Fresh Off the Boat and Veep actor Randall Park was added in reshoots as Aquaman ally Dr Stephen Shin.

In the director's chair we have James Wan, whose previous credits include Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring and – in a slightly more superhero-y vein – Fast & Furious 7. Kidman has been a fan of her fellow Australian Wan for some time. "As soon as he said I could wear mother-of-pearl and be a mermaid warrior, I said, 'I'm done! Please! If there is one thing I have to do in my life, I have to be that!'"

Related: Aquaman fans get into a massive row about the number of prongs on his trident

Aquaman movie villains: Three-man pile-up

Warner Bros.

Reports that the film will feature multiple villains have been confirmed, although sadly it won't be calling up the Malignant Amoeba, Queequeg or Iceberg Head from Aquaman's rogues' gallery.

Not surprisingly, we will be getting the two villains that comics fans can reliably name: Ocean Master and Black Manta. And Den of Geek's magazine cover for San Diego Comic-Con has turned the spotlight on all the characters...

Watchmen's Patrick Wilson will be Orm Marius, aka Ocean Master, Aquaman's jealous younger half-brother who has an eye on the throne of Atlantis.

Wilson has also shared an insight into Orm's motives, suggesting his character has a turbulent relationship with mankind.

"He's kind of an eco-warrior. He's got a very clear gripe with the surface world, which has been polluting his oceans for centuries. And that's something for me — I'm sure for you too — that's very easy to understand. If somebody was just constantly polluting our air and ruining how we lived," he told EW.

"Unless we change course, plastic waste could soon outweigh all the fish in the oceans... It kills marine life and is doing major harm to communities that depend on fishing and tourism."

Warner Bros.

The Greatest Showman's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will play Black Manta, a human villain with a high-tech wetsuit and the weirdest-looking helmet ever. Wan has described Black Manta as "part mercenary but full-time pirate", which is a spot-on description of the comic-book character.

Black Manta is best known for having murdered Aquaman's young son, which we're hoping the film will skip over. Michael Beach will play his dad, the boatjacker Jesse Kane.

Warner Bros.

A third villain was later confirmed, with the legendary Dolph Lundgren cast as Nereus. He's the king of Xebel, the secret underwater kingdom which Mera is also from.

The creepy fish monsters called The Trench are also rumoured for the movie.

But do not fear a villainous pile up! Wan has assured us that the film won't actually have three villains.

"I think that's ridiculous!" he told EW. "I would never go into an origin movie with three villains. We don't even know the main character let alone the world and its antagonist. I believe in taking baby steps.

He continued: "We know Black Manta is in there, but I will say this: Patrick Wilson is the main antagonist in this film. I wouldn't necessarily say 'villain', but he's the antagonist."

Wan later reconfirmed that only one of King Orm and Black Manta will be the main threat, telling EW: "Black Manta is a really interesting character who is somehow factored into this story but our main story is about Jason [Momoa] and Patrick [Wilson's King Orm]."

That explains Aquaman's confusing 'Unite the Seven' Justice League teaser poster way back in 2015. It wasn't talking about potential members of the super team but the seven kingdoms of Atlantis.

A more up-to-date poster, released ahead of San Diego Comic-Con, reveals Aquaman's underwater army. Well, if you can talk to fish, you might as well sign them up to fight your battles!

Warner Bros.

Aquaman movie plot: Under the sea

Aquaman's standard origin story is that he was born to a lighthouse keeper called Tom Curry and a mysterious woman called Atlanna, who soon afterwards dies (or seems to die), but not before revealing that she is a member of the royal family of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis.

DC Comics

Arthur Curry grows up to discover that he can breathe underwater and has superhuman strength and endurance (which allow him to survive at extreme depths). He can also communicate with and command aquatic life – a power that has been the butt of jokes for decades.

From Justice League, we know that he doesn't have much of a connection to Atlantis, avoiding the place after his mother abandoned him (...or did she?).

He met Mera for the first time in Justice League, and it sounds like she is close to the queen.

Aquaman will focus on the hunt for King Atlan's iconic Trident so that Arthur Curry can become the King of Atlantis, reports Joblo.com. He'll search for it with the help of Mera (Heard), as Wilson's Orm (aka Ocean Master) and Abdul-Mateen II's David Hyde (aka Black Manta) try to stop them.

Atlantean Orm also seeks to destroy the surface dwellers, blaming them for the destruction of the oceans. That will see his army attack coastal cities during his search for Atlan's trident and in a battle to subjugate the Fisherman Kingdom (called "The Battle of the Brine").

Wan has hinted that despite the precedent set by Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, not to mention his own horror background, the film will be "fun".

"The kind of filmmaker that I am, even my darker horror films generally are still very fun. And I think that's important for me and the kind of films I make," he told IGN.

"I think Aquaman is a character that a lot of people have made fun of over the years, and I just think it's fun to actually show a really different, cool, badass side to this character. But at the same time, let's not forget to have fun with it."

Warner Bros.

Wan has also compared Aquaman to Wolverine.

"He's the outsider who gets pulled into this world and he kind of doesn't want to belong and he was doing his own thing," he said.

"He's like a reluctant superhero, right? He's the reluctant king, basically, or would-be king."

Momoa has said that it draws on everything from "Raiders of the Lost Ark to Star Wars to Lord of the Rings to Romancing the Stone".

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