For years, Namor has been linked with making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, and those rumors only intensified after it was confirmed that the Sub-Mariner was indeed teased during Avengers: Endgame. Most of the speculation surrounding the character has involved him showing up in the Black Panther franchise, and it surely wasn’t a coincidence that Danai Gurira’s Okoye was the one who mentioned underwater tremors happening near Wakanda.
The big screen rights to Namor have been at Universal for a while now, of course, meaning he can be used as a supporting character but won’t be able to headline a standalone venture, and bringing him in as a major antagonist would be one way of maximizing his undoubted cinematic potential without incurring the wrath of the legal department.
In fact, insider Grace Randolph has now claimed that in one version of Black Panther 2‘s script, it’s revealed that T’Challa and Shuri’s mother was killed a long time ago by Atlanteans, which would lend further weight to Namor’s involvement in the sequel. However, following the death of leading man Chadwick Boseman, the entire project will inevitably be delayed and may even be reworked from the ground up.
Also, there is a version of the script where T'Challa & Shuri's mother was killed a long time ago by #Atlanteans
thus raising the stakes vs #Namor…
We'll see if they stick with that.
— Grace Randolph (@GraceRandolph) November 5, 2020
Of course, Angela Bassett played Queen Ramonda in the first movie, who was believed to be T’Challa and Shuri’s mother. As such, it seems that Randolph could be mistaken here. Speaking to our own sources, we were informed that the insider might actually have meant to say their grandmother instead, which would still set Namor up as Black Panther 2‘s big bad. But we weren’t able to get firm confirmation on that. Only that the villain is indeed behind the death of someone close to T’Challa and Shuri.
Regardless, it seems the character will have a big role to play in the sequel and as soon as we receive some more clarification on how, exactly, he’ll be involved, we’ll be sure to let you know.
