We have some bad news for those who were waiting for what seemed like the inevitable announcement of a solo movie from Namor. And it is that, similar to what happens with the Hulk, the rights of the character played by Tenoch Huerta Mejía are not fully controlled by Marvel Studios.
Producer Nate Moore spoke with The Wrap around the future of the mutant in the MCU. “[Namor] Can come back”, confirmed Moore; however, according to his words, Disney cannot dedicate an independent adventure to him, since Universal Pictures still has rights to the character.
Nate Moore acknowledged that the situation with Namor is similar to the deal that Marvel Studios has with Universal for the Hulk, so he was only “borrowed” to appear in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In fact, the producer claims that the Talokan monarch couldn’t just appear in promotional materials, unless it was as part of a poster series.
“Honestly, it affects us more, and I don’t want to give too much away, in how we market the movie than how we use it in the movie,” Moore said. “There really weren’t things that we couldn’t do from a character perspective, which is good because clearly, we took a lot of inspiration from the source material, but we also made some major changes to really anchor it in that world in a reality where the post It never landed, I would say, in a major way.”
Namor in limbo movie, the Marvel-Universal saga
For those unfamiliar with the situation, Marvel was on the verge of bankruptcy during the 1990s. As a measure to survive, the House of Ideas sold rights to its characters to multiple studios in Hollywood. That was how Spider-Man ended up with Sony or the X-Men and the Fantastic 4 with Fox, to name a few examples.
Universal Pictures, for its part, took over the rights to the Hulk and Namor. Since then, directors like Chris Columbus (harry potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) or Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) were linked at various points to the development of a Namor film for Marvel and Universal. Although no project came to fruition.
Now, this singular agreement has trapped both companies. Unlike contracts with other studios, Universal only owns the distribution rights, so they cannot develop their own productions of these characters, only distribute those made by Marvel Studios. In that sense, Kevin Feige could technically order a Namor or Hulk project at any time. However, Disney would lose a significant amount of profit by not handling distribution.
You might also be interested in: Tenoch Huerta wants his own movie as Namor.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. It has been heavily rumored that the rights to the Hulk would finally return to Marvel as early as mid-2023. Hence, Bruce Banner’s story in the MCU seems headed for an adaptation of world war hulk. Will it be the same situation with Namor? And what is in store for the character of Tenoch Huerta at this time?
When asked about the possibility of a Namor solo film, Kevin Feige declared at the premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever That would depend on the reception of the character. So maybe Marvel Studios is about to claim the rights to Namor as well. As long as that does not happen, the House of Ideas will not be in a hurry to announce an individual adventure of “Kꞌuꞌukꞌul Kaan”, and we will have to settle for seeing him in other MCU productions.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever It continues to be shown in theaters in Mexico.
Staff Cinema PREMIERE This text was conceived, created and developed at the same time by a team of experts working in harmony. All together. One letter each.