Matt Damon As AQUAMAN: The Rumor That Will Not Die

So did you hear the one about Matt Damon being pursued for the role of Aquaman in Batman vs Superman? Well, Matt Goldberg over at Collider didn’t, so he makes a big deal about it now.

This latest round started when Jeff Sneider over at The Wrap made a casual reference to the rumor that Matt Damon was being sought to play the King of Atlantis in Warners’ upcoming slate of DC’s films during his story on Zack Snyder being named director of the Justice League film. Goldberg obviously thinks Sneider buried the lead with this information, so he takes that small factoid and makes a full post out of it. Goldberg even marvels at the fact that such a rumor was able to be “kept under wraps” for such a long time.

Thing is, it hasn’t been under wraps. It has been out in the open for almost nine months. Who do I know this? Because I mentioned the rumor in an article here back on August 26, 2013. It was tacked on the “Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor” rumor Cosmic Book News put forth three days before that. And we all know how that worked out, now don’t we?

But regardless, this rumor is old news. But since Goldberg didn’t even do a cursory Google search, he thought he had the scoop of the century. The sad thing is, page is probably getting a lot hits, because people who actually did hear the rumor back in August thought there might have been some movement in that area since there was a news on it. Imagine their disappointment when they actually read Goldberg’s article.

In the interest of not getting fans’ hopes up, let me say this. I’m more likely to play Aquaman than Matt Damon, and I don’t even know how to swim. It might not seem like it, but Damon is a major movie star. His films have grossed in total over $3 billion worldwide. He has one Oscar to his name, and two more nominations on top of that. Now, look at the other confirmed castings we have: a relative unknown as Wonder Woman, and a complete unknown as Cyborg. What does this tell you? That for everyone outside of Batman, Warners is buying low when it comes to casting. Granted, they are developing an Aquaman film, and Damon would add respect to what is considered a “lame” character in many circles, but it seems unlikely that Warners would be willing to pay the 43-year-old actor his $10 to $20 million salary when they can get younger for much cheaper and get a longer return on their investment.

And from Damon’s perspective, what’s in it for him besides working with his buddy Ben Affleck? He’s not going to get a big payday for his work, or any award nominations either. He doesn’t really need a franchise under his belt, and if he did, he still has the Bourne movies for that purpose. All signing up for Aquaman gives Damon is a big time drain on his schedule that he could have spent doing films he had more of a personal interest in.

So, let’s put this rumor back to bed, where it was before Goldberg woke it up.