Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is grabbing the spotlight all over again in the wake of its long-awaited arrival on Disney Plus, albeit not entirely for the right reasons. Still, Marvel fans everywhere are excited to see where the franchise goes from here, even if the sequel’s perfect spinoff is doomed never to happen. Although everyone would love to see Tenoch Huerta’s Talokan king Namor get his own MCU movie, Marvel is actually legally forbidden from turning such a project into a reality.
And, you know what, maybe that’s actually a good thing.
The crux of the matter is that Universal still owns the rights to a prospective Namor movie series, so Marvel can feature him in the MCU however it likes, it’s just that the studio can’t make a film with his name in the title. This is practically a match to the situation surrounding the Hulk, then, whose rights are likewise shared with Universal. A glimpse at how the limitations around the Green Goliath forced Marvel to get more creative with him proves why the Namor ban might be a secret blessing.
It’s fair to say that the MCU Hulk’s popularity grew exponentially after The Incredible Hulk. Sure, a lot of that was to do with Mark Ruffalo, but credit should also be given for how Marvel never let the character go stale over the years, notably even sending him into space in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok and eventually expanding Bruce Banner’s family in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Sure, there might’ve been bumps a long the way — the random Smart Hulk change in Avengers: Endgame, for example — but the studio being prohibited from doing Incredible Hulk 2 only aided them in utilizing the character on a greater scope. As one of the oldest characters in Marvel canon, Namor deserves that same kind of creative thinking. So, all right, we won’t be getting a self-titled movie for him anytime soon, but there are various other, more inventive, ways he could return instead.
Whether that be facing the Fantastic Four or teaming up with the Agents of Atlas or potentially even crossing over with the X-Men, the ban on a Namor spinoff could allow the Sub-Mariner to really spread his (tiny feet) wings and embrace his full potential in the MCU.
For the moment, catch the one also known as K’uk’ulkan in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, streaming now.
