Even Julie Andrews Still Doesn’t Know What Her ‘Aquaman’ Character Was
First, there was Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” MCU amnesia. Now, DC has Julie Andrews treading water over her “Aquaman” character.
The Oscar winner lent her voice to an underwater sea creature that speaks telepathically with the titular superhero, played by Jason Momoa, in the 2018 film directed by James Wan. The “Mary Poppins” star was an immediate scene-stealer, if only she knew what scene that was.
“Apart from ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘Bridgerton,’ and, umm … [laughs] I’m not going to mention ‘Aquaman,’ where I play some kind of a sea serpent or something,” Andrews told Vanity Fair. “But what interesting things to get one’s voice into!”
Andrews, whose voiceover career has included the “delicious” narrator of Netflix’s “Bridgerton” and Gru’s mother in the “Despicable Me” franchise, had a cameo as the powerful mythical squid-like god Karathen in “Aquaman.”
Andrews called her “wonderful” voiceover career as a “whole other kind of moviemaking.”
“I don’t have to get hair and makeup anymore. I just go into the studio and do my voiceovers,” the “Princess Diaries” icon said. “You just chuck everything at the wall and they take what they want out of it. So there’s a lot of experimentation.”
“Aquaman” producer Peter Safran revealed in December 2018 that Andrews recorded her “Aquaman” cameo from her home with director Wan conferencing in to direct.
“She was fantastic,” Safran said. “She really nailed it, gave James everything he wanted, and that was it. You listen to Mary Poppins, and you listen to the Karathen. And if you don’t? You do it at your own peril.”
At the time, Safran teased that the door is always open for Andrews to be back as Karathen. “I have to believe that with all the work that went into creating the Karathen, why wouldn’t we have her come back in future movies?” Safran said.
“Aquaman 2” has a delayed release date now set for March 17, 2023, shifted from December 2022. Officially titled “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” the follow-up film centers on Aquaman (Momoa) as he teams up with an unlikely ally to save Atlantis. Returning stars Heard, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Randall Park, and Dolph Lundgren reprise their respective roles.
This week, Andrews receives the AFI Life Achievement Award in Los Angeles. The honor was originally set for 2020 but was delayed multiple times due to pandemic concerns.
