“I remember the walls of my comic book store in Iowa, and I remember being there with a friend who was the guy who introduced me to everything,” Momoa muses. “I don’t remember which one I got first. At that time I just bought a bunch of stuff, and it was just tons and tons of comic books.”

The ones featuring Lobo cumulatively left an impression on the Hawaiian actor, too, who originally lobbied to play the bounty hunter years ago before being cast instead as Aquaman in Zack Snyder’s version of the DC Universe in the 2010s. And it was also Momoa who directly texted James Gunn when news first trickled out that Gunn was probably rebooting the DCU in this decade. Much of the iconography we associate with Lobo—the motorcycle, the cigar, the leather—is here, as are elements that the actor invented wholecloth, such as giving Lobo basically metal talons on his fingers.

“It’s just more weapons,” says Momoa. “I think it’s just fun to be able to rip someone’s face off with claws. He’s got the fangs and everything, he’s just a big beast…. he’s a Grizzly Bear.”

Momoa seems to be a genuine fan of the material. When we even mention an infamous comic book story wherein Lobo is hired by the Easter Bunny, the actor interjects “to kill Santa Claus” before we finish our sentence. With that said, he’s not sure his Lobo would take that job.

“I mean, it’s tough to say. I like Santa Claus,” Momoa laughs. “I’m a fan of the character. But sure, I think there should be something funny in there, and Santa should definitely be in there, and I should definitely give him the eye.”

Of course not everything that works in a comic book works in a movie and vice versa. Some of this is due to commercial considerations, such as the fact that while Tom King’s Kara swears like a sailor, Alcock’s is only permitted one F-bomb in a PG-13 rating. Hence why they shot multiple scenes where Alcock dropped the four-letter word, leaving choices in the final edit.