As Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continues to dominate the box office, Marvel fans are no doubt curious as to what further adventures await its characters. Specifically, the blockbuster sequel debuted the live-action version of Namor, one of Marvel Comics’ oldest characters if not the oldest. He has a comic book history stretching back nearly a century, so surely, Marvel must have plans to use the aquatic character in his own series of films. Well, not so fast.
According to Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore, Namor is still trapped in a complicated rights issue that prevents him from starring in solo films. Like the Hulk, Universal snatched up the rights to Namor back when Marvel Comics was selling off characters left and right to stave off bankruptcy in the ’90s. While Marvel Studios has been able to slowly claw back those rights thanks to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, it still has to “borrow” characters, which has had its hiccups. (See: The Great Spider-Man Debacle of 2019)
However, despite Universal’s ownership of Namor, Marvel still enjoyed free reign with the character. Via The Wrap:
“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,” Moore said. “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.”
Of course, Namor has historically worked best when he’s bouncing off other Marvel characters, particularly the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom. Giving him a solo film could be interesting, but for now, MCU fans will have to content themselves with Namor being a secondary character, which is often where he’s the most dynamic.
(Via The Wrap)
