A new look at Tenoch Huerta‘s rendition of Namor coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has just been unveiled in a special preview of the film.
The image, which features the Mesoamerican-inspired reimagining of the character sporting a number of necklaces, was revealed by Empire Magazine for an exclusive first look.
The full image was later posted by the Geeks of Color Twitter account.
In the film, Namor is the ruler of Talocan, an underwater realm whose existence gets threatened by the events that unfolded in the first Black Panther film when Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa reveals to the world the truth about Wakanda.
“That decision puts Talocan in jeopardy […] And Talocan has to take action to protect themselves,” Huerta explained in the Empire article.
Though Namor’s home is swapped from being Atlantis — like in the comics — to being the Aztec-inspired Talocan in the film, a lot of other elements of his character have remained preserved from the comics. For instance, Namor is a frequent foe to T’Challa in the comics. And though the late Boseman won’t appear in Wakanda Forever to face off with the character, the rivalry between the two civilizations is still very much alive.
“The contrast between T’Challa and Namor – their characters, and their nations – just leaps off the page […] He’s a dream antagonist,” co-writer and director Ryan Coogler explained.
In fact, that epic rivalry is so deep-rooted, Coogler once considered putting an end-credit teaser for Namor’s arrival after the credits rolled in 2018’s Black Panther, the article revealed.
Like in the comics, the MCU’s Namor will also be a mutant, which is sure to please fans of the source material. Only recently were mutants even an established part of the lore for the MCU, with the first mention of the term being from this year’s Disney Plus series Ms. Marvel. It is arguably only because of Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox — and their accompanying X-Men franchise — that the term mutant can even be mentioned in the MCU.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes to theaters on Nov. 11, 2022.
