The story of DCEU (now DCU) since 2022 has been one full of ups and downs. The hype for DC comics inspired movies was rising after The Suicide Squad, The Batman, and Peacemaker and with Henry Cavill’s cameo in Black Adam, the hype reached peak! But unfortunately 2022 ended with a disaster for them as WB hired James Gunn and Peter Safran which brought cancellation of many DC projects. 2023 turned out to be a horrible year for DCEU as Shazam 2, The Flash, and Blue Beetle turned out to be back to back HUGE box office bombs. With DCU rebooting in 2025, Aquaman 2 remained the last surviving DCEU project and so, there was nothing riding on it but to end DCEU in somewhat memorable way. Well, does it succeed at that? Let’s find out.
Aquaman 2 Story Summary and Recap With Spoilers
Well, as it is clear by the title, the following section of the article contains the full plot summary of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. As you may know, it has already been released in the eastern regions of the World, so of course, we have received all the information and leaks about it, as we possibly can. So read at your own risk!
Several years after the events of the first film, Arthur Curry / Aquaman has married Mera and had a son, Arthur Jr., and splits his life between land, where he lives in the lighthouse of his father Tom and fights crime, and the sea, ruling as the King of Atlantis. However, Arthur finds the diplomatic and bureaucratic royal duties boring, and is always entering conflict with the Atlantean council, who are particularly opposed to Arthur’s intent of making Atlantis contact the surface world. Meanwhile, David Kane / Black Manta seeks revenge against Aquaman, and follows the research of marine scientist Stephen Shin to look for Atlantean artifacts.
Once in an Atlantean ruin underneath the Arctic ice, David finds a black trident, that leads him to be possessed by its creator, who promises that if David helps his Atlantean tribe recover, David will receive the power he desires to destroy Aquaman, his family, and his kingdom. Five months later, global warming has worsened, with the surface’s climate experiencing extreme weather, and the ocean acidification causing diseases in the sea population. Atlantis is attacked by Black Manta, who takes the kingdom’s orichalcum reserves to power his ancient Atlantean machines restored by Shin, injures Mera, and proves himself capable of fighting Arthur in equal terms.
Reconvening with his mother Atlanna and Mera’s father Nereus, Arthur discovers that David is behind the rising temperatures, as he went after all the hidden reserves of orichalcum, which emits high quantities of greenhouse gases and nearly caused a planetary extinction when used by an ancient Atlantean kingdom. Arthur decides that the way to find out where the Black Manta is hidden is going after one of David’s allies, Arthur’s half-brother Orm Marius, held captive by the Fisherman kingdom since the first film ended for having killed their king. Arthur releases Orm from prison, and after a meeting with crimelord Kingfish discovers David is based on a south Pacific volcanic island.
Arriving in the island, Arthur and Orm discover monstruous fauna and flora that had been mutated by an orichalcum furnace where Black Manta’s base is located. Before Atlantis attacks and destroys the island, Orm gets hold of the black trident and has visions revealing its creator was Kordax, the brother of Atlantis founder King Atlan and ruler of the lost kingdom of Necrus, that wound up sealed in an icy prison after losing a war with Atlantis. Given the seal was created by Atlan with blood magic, the blood of any of his descendants could release Kordax, leading David to attack Tom Curry’s lighthouse and kidnap Arthur Jr. before heading to Necrus’s hiding place, that the Atlanteans discover with Shin’s help to be underneath the ice of Antarctica.
In Necrus, Arthur attacks David to stop him from injuring Arthur Jr., and David almost defeats Arthur before Orm arrives and disarms him of the black trident. As Orm gets hold of the trident, the spirit of Kordax leaves David for Orm, who proceeds to fight Arthur and use his blood to thaw the ice imprisoning the body of Kordax. With his half-brother freed, Arthur throws the black trident at Kordax, who catches it in mid-air, before throwing his own trident to destroy the black trident and fatally impale Kordax. With Kordax’s magic vanishing, Necrus starts to collapse, and as David hangs from a fissure, he refuses Arthur’s help and throws himself down the cliff.
The Atlanteans and Shin escape to safety, and Arthur and Mera decide to let Orm go and tell the rest of Atlantis that he died, on the condition he remains hidden. Arthur decides that uniting land and sea is necessary to combat climate change, and reveals Atlantis to the human world through an announcement to the United Nations, with the intent of making the underwater kingdom a member state. In the Aquaman 2 post credit scene, we see Patrick Wilson’s Orm enjoying a cheese burger in a restaurant. Suddenly, we see him grabbing a cockroach, putting it in his burger and then proceeding to eat it with a loud crunch and a nod of appreciation. This plays as a joke as earlier in the film, Orm is convinced by Aquaman that cockroaches are basically land shrimp and in some cultures are considered delicacy. And there you have it, the final scene of DC Extended Universe (2013-2023). May it RIP.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is all set to debut on 22 December, 2023.
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