After rumors did the rounds that Warner Bros. had all-but "given up" on promoting Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (why pour cash into a marketing campaign for a movie you have no confidence in?), the studio finally debuted some official footage from James Wan's sequel late last night.
It was only a 30-second teaser to hype-up Thursday's full trailer, but they managed to cram quite a lot in there, including a glimpse of the Atlantean hero doing battle with Black Manta, Arthur Curry witnessing what looks like his father's house in flames, Manta vowing to destroy his old enemy and all that he cares about, and more.
Most of it seemed to go over pretty well... aside from one particular shot of what initially appeared to be some kind of badly CGI'd sea-creature scaling the side of an underwater structure.
On closer inspection, this does appear to be Nicole Kidman's Atlanna.
We have no idea why Arthur Curry's mother looks like this or how anyone thought it was a good idea to include this in the first teaser for the movie, but that is most definitely Kidman's face - or rather, an appallingly rendered interpretation of her face.
The rest of the brief teaser looks perfectly fine, but this shot is already drawing unfavourable comparisons to the much-maligned "ChronoBowl" sequence from The Flash, and it's not difficult to see why.
Did you cop that this was Kidman's character right away? Have another look at the teaser below along with a screenshot of Atlanna.
The Lost Kingdom will be the final DCEU movie before the entire franchise is rebooted(?) in James Wan and Peter Safran's new DCU. We've heard mixed reports about Jason Momoa staying on as Arthur Curry, and there are rumors that he'll actually be taking on a new role (possibly as Lobo) down the line.
In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, when an ancient power is unleashed, Aquaman must forge an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally to protect Atlantis, and the world, from irreversible devastation.
The movie stars Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Nicole Kidman (Atlanna), Patrick Wilson (Orm), Amber Heard (Mera), Yahya Adbdul-Mateen II (Black Manta), and Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus), along with newcomers in the form of Pilou Asbæk, Vincent Regan, and Indya Moore.