Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom Post-Credits Scene Explained

For the final DC Extended Universe movie, we explain the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom post-credits scene. The sequel to 2018’s Aquaman wasn’t originally intended to close out the DCEU, but that’s how things turned out. After many attempts to right their ship, Warner Bros. Discovery brought in James Gunn and Peter Safran to lead a new film division called DC Studios. In January, Gunn and Safran announced a relaunch of the DCEU as the new DC Universe, which will kick off on the big screen with Gunn’s Superman: Legacy in 2025.

While the prospect of a more unified DCU is exciting, Gunn and Safran’s announcement left the remaining DCEU movies – Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – in a peculiar place. Aquaman franchise director James Wan confirmed that the new direction for the DCU led to changes in Aquaman 2, which was the case for The Flash as well. Given the state of the DCEU/DCU, it seemed unlikely the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ending would set up anything for the future, but now we discuss the Aquaman 2 post-credits scene and explain what it means for the franchise.

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Aquaman & the Lost Kingdom Cast & DC Character Guide

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the final DCEU film ahead of the imminent DCU reboot, features a large cast of both new and returning characters.

Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom Has 1 Post-Credits Scene

Like the first movie, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has only one credits scene. The scene arrives at the mid-credits point, after the stylized credits have ended, but before the scroll begins. There isn’t anything at the very end of the Aquaman 2 credits, neither an additional scene nor an audio tag. There also isn’t any text screen akin to Marvel Studios’ movies that states a character will return.

Is The Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom Credits Scene Worth Waiting For?

We’ll reveal below what the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom credits scene entails to avoid spoiling those who haven’t seen the movie, but we can confirm the scene doesn’t serve any future setup. Instead, it continues a joke from the movie and offers a final punchline before the credits scroll. As such, the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom credits scene isn’t worth waiting for except for completionists.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the sequel to the 2018 film that sees Jason Momoa reprise his role as Arthur Curry (AKA Aquaman.) In the film, Aquaman is forced to forge a strained alliance with a new ally to protect his kingdom of Atlantis and the world from total destruction. 

Release Date

December 22, 2023

Runtime

124 Minutes

What Happens In Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom’s Credits Scene

SPOILERS for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom ahead.The Aquaman 2 credits scene picks up just after the scene in which a waitress brings Orm (Patrick Wilson) his first cheeseburger. In the credits scene, a cockroach crawls across his table, and he catches it in his fingers, opening his burger and putting it on the bun. Then Orm takes a bite of the burger, now with an added cockroach, and he makes a face like he enjoys the meal even more.

The Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom credits scene is a callback to earlier in the movie when Orm and Arthur are walking through the jungle on Devil’s Deep and talking about the delicacies the surface world has to offer. In true older brother fashion, Arthur tricks Orm into eating a cockroach, telling his little brother it’s common for folks on the surface to eat such things. Orm tries it and likes it, much to Arthur’s delight. The Aquaman 2 credits scene features a final punchline for the movie that calls back to an earlier joke while putting a punctuation point on the film, and the DCEU at large.

Why The Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom Post-Credits Scene Was So Divisive

Despite outwardly seemingly like a fairly innocuous scene, the Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom post-credits scene proved controversial among viewers, for two notable reasons. Firstly, many went into the movie expecting some note that would serve as a proper sendoff to the DCEU timeline, especially since reports that changes had been made to the movie were rife before Aquaman 2‘s release. As such, the fact the final moment of the film instead was an ultimately unimportant joke stoked the ire of those who’d been holding out hope for some impactful closure, as they got the exact opposite.

Secondly, there had been hopes Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom would reveal more about the impending DC Universe, either by revealing that Jason Momoa would remain as the DCU Aquaman casting, or by having a post-credits scene that was instead a trailer or teaser for DC’s new on-screen era. Superhero movies concluding with a teaser for another installment hasn’t been historically uncommon for the genre, meaning these hopes weren’t entirely unfounded, but they too proved not to be the case in the end, leaving audiences with a cockroach gag instead of a glimpse of the future.

Does Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom’s Credits Set Up The DCU Relaunch?

The Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom credits scene obviously doesn’t set up anything for Jason Momoa’s Aquaman future, which in itself sets the stage for Gunn and Safran’s DCU. The Aquaman 2 credits scene not setting anything up paves the way for the DCU reboot. There are no future teases that will wind up going unexplored, like the Black Adam credits scene bringing back Henry Cavill’s Superman only for Gunn to announce a few months later that he’d be recasting the role. This leaves the DCEU with one less dangling thread that the DCU will never wrap up.

Of course, there were still plenty of potential story threads for Momoa’s Aquaman to pick up if a third movie was given the green light. Black Manta’s ambiguous fate could’ve seen him return, and though Orm and Arthur mended their relationship, the Oceanmaster could’ve returned as a villain somehow – or an ally to fight off another villain.

But given the poor box office expectations for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, it’s likely Aquaman 3 will never happen. As such, it’s for the best that Aquaman 2 didn’t have a credits scene teasing anything for the future. Instead, the DCU can officially relaunch the universe with as clean a slate as possible after Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom officially concluded the DCEU.