“Time of my life. I get to be the bad guy finally. I’ve been the good guy for a while,” Momoa told Variety on the red carpet. “He’s very sadistic and androgynous and he’s a bit of a peacock… He’s got a lot of issues, this guy. He’s definitely got some daddy issues.”
And to Entertainment Tonight, he gushed, “I’ve never played a character that’s, what’s the word—he’s evil and quirky and androgynous. He’s very sadistic and fun. It’s very bizarre.”
A bizarre peacock with daddy issues: it definitely sounds like a new lane for Momoa, if not movie villains as a whole. (Dare we say the quirky androgynous villain character is a bit…played out?) But it’s important to the Aquaman star that he branch out: “It’s been hard because people always think I’m just this dude who plays [macho characters],” he lamented in a recent GQ interview. “But I want to be moved, I want something new. Things are changing, and even the villain roles I’m playing now are eccentric.” Hey, if Momoa’s moved by the depiction of daddy issues in the Fast & Furious franchise, who are we to yuck his yum?
Of course, Momoa’s hero days are far from over, as he has the upcoming Aquaman sequel The Lost Kingdom. “It’s a bit of a brothers’ journey,” he told ET of his reunion with co-star Patrick Wilson. “So it’s a lot of funny stuff, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s just what’s going on in our environment, talking about climate change and just hitting on certain things that I wanted to hit on…. Just a lot of laughs and also a lot of pain, so there’s wonderful action.” Both The Lost Kingdom and Fast X are scheduled to premiere next year, so get ready for the many faces of Momoa in 2023.