It’s widely viewed that James Gunn’s all-powerful new gig at Warner Bros. is Marvel‘s loss but DC’s gain, and yet at least the MCU is getting something out of the exciting reboot of its Distinguished Competition.

Even though we kind of already got a taste of the DCU in Blue Beetle, the DCEU officially wraps up with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, bringing a close to the 10-year lifespan of the franchise that began with 2013’s Man of Steel. As such, we likely won’t see the vast majority of its heroes and villains again, although the Sea King himself, Jason Momoa, is believed to be popping up in another role (*cough* Lobo *cough*).

That’s lucky for Marvel, then, as it means that the House of Ideas is about to swipe an underrated DC icon right from under its rival’s nose.

Aquaman 2 likely marks the end of an Emmy-winning actor’s five-year association with DC

As the trailers have made clear, The Lost Kingdom centers around Black Manta’s revenge mission against Arthur Curry, following their initial tussle in the first movie, which threatens everything that the King of Atlantis holds dear. Once again, the villain is played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, in what could be his final DC appearance, even if his legend in the superhero genre will live on.

Abdul-Mateen II first joined the DC multiverse in 2018’s Aquaman, in which he gave a solid, sinister performance as David Hyde, but it was the following year that he really showed comic book-loving audiences what he could do. The actor featured in 2019’s Watchmen TV series, as supporting character Cal Abar who delivered a god-tier performance that won him an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

You might think that Gunn could be tempted to bring a talent like Abdul-Mateen II back somewhere, then, even if he is done as Black Manta, but there’s one big roadblock to this happening. The star has already signed up with Marvel Studios to play Simon Williams aka Wonder Man in the TV show of the same name. While Wonder Man is currently on the back-burner, amid some restructuring at Marvel Studios of its TV division, but no doubt once YAM does eventually make his MCU debut he’ll be sticking around for the long term.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is in theaters from Dec. 22.