While the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) continues to thrive with one successful motion picture after another, the DC Comics Extended Universe (DCEU) keeps experiencing hits and misses. The latter failed miserably with “Suicide Squad,” then they redeemed themselves and hit a tremendous home run with “Wonder Woman.” But next we got “Justice League” which was their answer to “The Avengers,” and it did not live up to the fans’ expectations. While Marvel took its precious time setting up its cinematic universe, DC could only play catch up constantly to where they had to offer its biggest movie much sooner than they should have.

But one of the best things about “Justice League” was Jason Momoa who portrayed Arthur Curry, better known to us as Aquaman. Since then, I have been looking forward to a solo movie for this character, and news of its making has only heightened my anticipation. At Comic-Con this past weekend, the first trailer for “Aquaman” was finally unveiled, and it looks awesome.

“Aquaman” is being directed by James Wan who had worked on the indie horror franchises “Saw” and “Insidious,” and he has since graduated to bigger projects like “The Conjuring” and “Furious 7,” one of the very best “Fast & Furious” movies. From this trailer, he appears to have given “Aquaman” some truly amazing special effects, and he looks to keep the human element of this superhero film in balance with them. In addition, you have Amber Heard co-starring as Mera, Aquaman’s love interest who possesses hydrokinetic and telepathic powers, and she looks dazzling with all that red hair.

The moments I loved in this trailer include when Arthur is getting picked on by the school bullies while on a field trip at an aquarium, and all the fishes, a shark in particular, come to his defense. It really is nice to have Jaws on your side, isn’t it? I also liked how Aquaman and his fellow people are able to speak and move around in water as easily as they do on land. Everyone involved in this film’s making have made this seem very believable.

Of course, we learn in this trailer how Aquaman is reluctant to become king of the underwater nation Atlantis, and I fear this may be another one of those “no I can’t be the one” movies where the hero spends way too much time denying the destiny we know he or she will eventually embrace. A lot of these movies have the hero finally embracing the role society begs him to play in the last third, but by then they can seem like wasted opportunities. Hopefully this DC film will not be one of them.

“Aquaman” is set to be released on December 21, 2018. Please check out the trailer below.