In a recent interview with THR, Aquaman director James Wan (who is also currently promoting the latest in the Conjuring franchise, Annabelle: Creation) spoke about how actor Dolph Lundgren became involved with the Warner Bros. project.

“When I was in the process of writing this character [King Nereus] in the world of Aquaman, a friend of mine, [director] Mike Mendez, was working with [Dolph Lundgren] on one of his films, and Mike was just raving about how great Dolph was. And I thought ‘Oh my god, Dolph would be great for this role as well!’ So, it kind of came about from that roundabout way.”

Wan who has nothing but praise for Lundgren added:

“He’s a really strong actor. I don’t think anyone gives him enough credit for how serious he takes his craft. He’s taking it very seriously on this film.”

The movie Wan refers to is a low-budget picture called Don’t Kill It which was released earlier this year.

Although Lundgren never stopped making pictures, he has gone through somewhat of a resurgence in recent years with his appearance in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, his role on the CW series Arrow, rumors of him returning to the Rocky franchise and reprising his role as Ivan Drago in the sequel to Creed, and of course playing Nereus, king of the underwater nation of Xebel in Aquaman next year.

Aquaman is set for release on December 21st 2018 starring Jason Mamoa, Amber Heard, William Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren and Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Black Manta.