"Whitewashing," the practice of casting of white actors to play characters who were other ethnicities in the source material, has been a highly controversial Hollywood practice over the past several years. But what about when the reverse happens, and someone who isn't white is cast to play a character who has long been portrayed as white?

Well, at minimum it can help correct an historic imbalance in superhero comics; in the specific case of Aquaman, it may also make him a lot cooler. The actor who plays Aquaman in DC's upcoming slate of superhero movies is Jason Momoa, who was born in Hawaii and is of partly Polynesian descent -- and Momoa fully intends to embrace his Polynesian heritage in his portrayal of the character.

In comments reported by ComicBook.com at Walker Stalker Con in Atlanta, Momoa said:

The greatest thing for me is that Polynesians, our gods, Kahoali, Maui, all these water gods, so it’s really cool and a honor to be playing a [water] character. And there’s not too many brown superheroes, so I’m really looking forward to representing the Polynesians, the natives.

My family are some of the greatest water men on earth. I’m not, but I’m going to go train with them. But it’s really an honor just being a Polynesian. And water is the most important thing in this world and we all know it.

Momoa added that he doesn't have any inside information about the 2018 Aquaman movie Warner Bros. and DC officially announced last week. He doesn't even know who the director is. He did confirm that he'll be in the Justice League movie in 2017, but that  already seemed a safe bet.

The actor also admitted that Aquaman was not his favorite character in his younger years. Back then, he really liked Spawn and Lobo. Imagine that, a kid who grew up in the 1990s who liked Spawn and Lobo. (In all honesty, though, Momoa would be a fantastic Lobo.)

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