Marvel’s latest offering, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, introduced fans to the multifaceted villain Namor, aka Namor the Sub-Mariner from the comics. In the movie, Namor (played by Tenoch Huerta) went up against Wakanda as he found out that they were unwilling to make an alliance with his underwater nation, the only other place in the world where the powerful element vibranium is found.
While Namor was ultimately defeated by the new Black Panther, his life was spared, so it’s possible that we will see his return in the MCU. But as of right now, we will only see him in movies of other Marvel characters.
In a recent interview with The Wrap, Marvel producer Nate Moore explained that “he can return,” but Marvel and Disney can’t produce a solo Namor film. Those rights remain with Universal Pictures.
It’s similar to the arrangement Marvel and Universal have with the Hulk and his associated characters. Universal retains the rights for any solo Hulk movie, but Marvel is allowed to use Bruce Banner and his alter ego in a supporting capacity.
According to Moore, Marvel largely has creative freedom when deciding how to use its shared characters with Universal. But there are also some restrictions.
Moore explained:
“It honestly affects us more, and not to talk too much out of school, but in how we market the film than it does how we use him in the film. There weren’t really things we couldn’t do from a character perspective for him, which is good because clearly, we took a ton of inspiration from the source material, but we also made some big changes to really anchor him in that world in a truth that publishing never really landed on, I would argue, in a big way.”
Moore did not address whether Marvel’s arrangement with Universal would preclude Namor from starring in a Disney+ series. Earlier this year, Marvel debuted a She-Hulk series which featured both Hulk and Abomination in guest-starring roles. But it’s unclear if a similar workaround could be applied to the Sub-Mariner.
Would you like to see Namor’s character explored more in the MCU?
via: SuperHeroType