Aquaman Faces Off Against His Biggest Foe in the New "Lost Kingdom" Trailer

We just got our best look yet at "Aquaman 2," aka "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom." On Sept. 10, Warner Bros. released the film's teaser trailer, followed by the full preview four days later, and both make the villainous Black Manta's (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) ultimate goal pretty clear: "I'm gonna kill Aquaman and destroy everything he holds dear." In the new trailer, Abdul-Mateen II's antagonist continues, "I'm gonna murder his family and burn his kingdom to ash."

This time around, Jason Momoa's Aquaman must forge an unlikely alliance with his imprisoned brother and put their differences aside to protect their family, kingdom, and the rest of the world from Manta's irreversible destruction.

As for "Aquaman" and DC fans, there are a lot of things to look forward to in the movie, including Ben Affleck's final return as Batman. Momoa announced the news last summer on Instagram, sharing photos of himself with Affleck, plus a video of himself getting "busted" by unsuspecting fans on a Warner Bros. studio tour. "REUNITED bruce and arthur," he wrote. The two characters both appeared in 2016's "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and 2017's "Justice League." They also show up in 2021's "Zack Snyder's Justice League," the recut version of the 2017 film. Affleck also reprised his role as Bruce Wayne in "The Flash" this summer.

"Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is directed by James Wan, who directed "Aquaman" and "Furious 7." Most of Wan's previous work was in horror, where he co-created the Saw and Insidious franchises and the world of "The Conjuring." The movie's screenplay is by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who previously worked with Wan on "The Conjuring 2" and "The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It."

Back in April 2022, Wan spoke at CinemaCon about the new movie. According to CinemaBlend, he told the audience that he and his team now had new technology that made it much easier to film the underwater sequences — and made it a lot more comfortable for the actors. "It's less painful for the actors," he explained, "which makes it easier for me as well, because they're not screaming and yelling at me . . . but the most important thing is it really frees up the filmmaking to really do things I've never been able to do before. And that is exciting." He said that the first movie forced the actors to endure "a lot of physical pain" because of the wires and tuning forks they were strapped into.

Read on for everything else we know about "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," including the cast and release date.