Aquaman 2’s post-credits scene, explained

Spoiler warning: This submit comprises spoilers for Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom.

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

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

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

Within 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 type of punishment.) The 2 go on a quest to battle 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 — principally meals, principally 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 folks 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 chunk. An enormous smile stretches over Orm’s face as he savors the style, and the scene cuts to black.

Warner Bros. Studios/DC Comics

Clearly, the credit scene is a reference to Orm’s gross style but additionally, on a optimistic be aware, 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.

Normally, credits scenes tease our hero’s subsequent film. Each Warner Bros. and Marvel have accomplished this fairly a bit, introducing superhero teams and even some villains of their film credit scenes. However for Warner Bros.’ heroes particularly, that future appears a little bit extra bleak.

In October, director James Gunn and Peter Safran had been named co-chairs and co-chief govt officers of DC Studios — the individuals accountable for superhero storytelling. When Gunn and Safran had been appointed, a cinematic overhaul of the universe was introduced with a brand new slate of initiatives on the horizon. None of these future initiatives 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 had been thought-about field workplace bombs, which actually doesn’t encourage a whole lot 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 — except it’s all about sharing a burger along with his brother.