Aquaman 2’s post-credits scene, explained

Spoiler warning: This put up incorporates spoilers for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is actually a lot film. The movie marks the return of Aquaman a.ok.a. Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) — who, after ascending to the throne of Atlantis, has to combat off David Kane’s a.ok.a. Black Manta’s (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) assault on the undersea kingdom, full with mild necromancy and zombies, a sonic demise gun, and a cephalopod sidekick. The journey takes our hero to the deep sea, a mutant jungle, a parched desert, and Antarctica, and consists of themes about world warming and racism (apparently, Atlanteans have excessive prejudice in opposition to floor dwellers). The film has a sense of finality — not only for the soggy king, however the complete DC Comics onscreen universe as we’ve recognized it.

Given all that, and particularly with Momoa’s future as Aquaman unsure, was there something left for Warner Bros. to indicate in a credit scene? Another journey, maybe?

Aquaman 2 has one credit scene, and it’s a callback to one of many film’s goofy jokes.

In the movie, Aquaman has to free his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) from the Deserters, which includes him breaking right into a maximum-security desert jail. (For residents of Atlantis, being removed from water is its personal form of punishment.) The two go on a quest to combat Kane, however not earlier than Aquaman performs a joke on his little brother.

Orm hates the floor world, however Aquaman tells him that his prejudice is limiting his life. Orm’s mindset means lacking out on good issues like hamburgers, beer, and tacos. Orm begins to melt his view after listening to all these incredible issues — largely meals, largely alcohol — that his brother can’t cease gushing about. Aquaman then picks up a cockroach and tells his brother that they’re the shrimp of the land and other people eat them on a regular basis. Intrigued, Orm gobbles one up and likes the style, a lot to Aquaman’s dismay.

The credit scene reveals Orm lastly having fun with the burger and beer his brother waxed poetic about, however not earlier than a cockroach crawls on the desk. Orm crushes the bug, stuffs it into his burger, and takes an enormous chew. An enormous smile stretches over Orm’s face as he savors the style, and the scene cuts to black.

Obviously, the credit scene is a reference to Orm’s gross style but additionally, on a optimistic notice, his openness to rethinking his prejudices and discovering magnificence within the floor world. It additionally appears to point that this iteration of Aquaman is completed.

Usually, credit scenes tease our hero’s subsequent film. Both Warner Bros. and Marvel have carried out this fairly a bit, introducing superhero groups and even some villains of their film credit scenes. But for Warner Bros.’ heroes particularly, that future seems somewhat extra bleak.

In October, director James Gunn and Peter Safran have been named co-chairs and co-chief govt officers of DC Studios — the individuals in command of superhero storytelling. When Gunn and Safran have been appointed, a cinematic overhaul of the universe was introduced with a brand new slate of tasks on the horizon. None of these future tasks featured the studio’s present iterations of its heroes, together with Aquaman, Shazam, and the Flash. Since then, the Shazam sequel and the Flash standalone have been thought-about field workplace bombs, which actually doesn’t encourage a number of confidence of their future appearances.

With Aquaman 2’s credit scene opting to go for a joke, paired with the film’s extraordinarily tidy ending and no massive unhealthy on the horizon, there’s no tease for Aquaman’s subsequent massive journey — until it’s all about sharing a burger together with his brother.