Actor Patrick Wilson turned plenty of heads with his over-the-top performance as Orm, the self-proclaimed Ocean Master, opposite Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry in the DCEU’s buckwild superhero adventure movie, Aquaman–and he’s ready to come back for more, if he ever gets the chance. While Aquaman 2 is unconfirmed at the moment, the movie’s box office success and favorable reviews seem to be leaning in a positive direction, meaning Wilson might just get the chance to don the extravagant silver mask again in a redemption arc.
In speaking with GameSpot, Wilson laughed, “I don’t really know anything–I mean, I know some things, but I’ll speak as a fan. When you look at that scene before the Ring of Fire, when he says ‘go home, Arthur,’ you see a guy that honestly loves his brother and wishes he didn’t have to do this. Then at the end you see with his mother, you see the payoff and you see a guy, a son, that is broken and beaten but not out. I think the question is, can you trust him? But I certainly think he’s got some good things to do.”
Wilson continued, highlighting that the appeal of Orm’s character isn’t really in his capacity for evil, but his motivation to save his people by any means necessary. “With Orm, we learn from what the character says and what the people say about the character. You hear about him. You hear about his leadership. How he is this angry half-brother. How he rules Atlantis. How Atlantis is in trouble and then you meet him and then you see that really he’s just violently upset at the way the surface world has polluted his ocean,” he explained. “And knowing that, immediately you care, is what I think. That’s the fun thing for an audience to walk in there and at times, it doesn’t matter if you like or dislike these people. You care and you wanna see them work it out. You don’t need to know anything other than what you learn. He’s an angry guy with a distraught family and resentful and jealous of his half-breed brother who’s Aquaman. He’s an evil warrior but he’s really just trying to save his oceans.”
A redemptive turn for the Ocean Master isn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility, according to the comic book source material. Like most characters in the Aquaman pantheon, Orm’s published history is riddled with retcons and changes, both major and minor. At his first introduction, he was actually a full-blooded human before being modified to being half-Atlantean, and then finally a full-blooded Atlantean warlord. He’s been proficient in magic with the ability to modify reality, which he’s used to proclaim himself Aquaman on at least one occasion, and he and Arthur have buried the hatchet more than once. In fact, in recent comics, Orm has actually shown total disgust at the moniker “Ocean Master” and a distrust for Atlanteans trying to overthrow the throne.
Naturally, the DCEU isn’t beholden to any published version of Orm’s character as future films are planned, and the generally positive note things ended on as Atlanna reclaimed the throne leaves plenty of room for potential reconciliation between the entire Curry family–even if Orm might be a bit difficult to trust in the future.
However, as we saw in the post-credits stinger, it looks like any subsequent Aqua-films will actually take their focus off the inner workings of Atlantean politics and take a dive into the bad blood between Aquaman and Black Manta. This, of course, could possibly clear the way for an Arthur and Orm team-up, especially given Orm’s relationship to Manta and all the drama that could be stirred up between them.
Look, in a movie where Julie Andrews voices a giant kaiju, it’s safe to say that stranger things have happened and, while a heroic Ocean Master may be a stretch for some die-hard fans, it’s far from out of the realm of possibility.
