‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Director Ryan Coogler Asked Marvel To Use Namor During Post-Production on the First Film
As the world prepares for the arrival of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever next week, Fandango has released a brand-new image featuring Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta. Check it out above.
Ryan Coogler has had dibs on Namor for a while
The character apparently was on Ryan Coogler’s wishlist going back to late 2017, when he was in post-production of the first Black Panther. Producer Nate Moore has been making the press rounds lately, and speaking to /Film, he confirmed that Coogler had asked Marvel to save the Sub-Mariner for him:
“Ryan is a huge fan of comic books, and in publishing, Namor and Atlantis often would come in conflict with Wakanda and the Black Panther. And so even as early as in post-production on the first movie, he was like, ‘If we get so lucky, could we maybe, could I just raise my hand and make sure no one uses Namor?’ And luckily, nobody was, and he had a great idea for it very early on. So we started building towards that idea, which I think is really fun.”
He added how the casting of Huerta in the role added many layers to what was already on the page:
“It isn’t just, ‘I want to take over the world,’ which is sort of not a real motivation, but it’s about people. He is a ruler who cares for his people very deeply. And Tenoch Huerta, I think, embodied that. And there’s a scene in the film where you see him lose one of his people and how much that impacts him. That’s an important scene because you realize, ‘Oh, this isn’t a guy who’s doing this for no reason. It’s because he cares.'”
Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
Black Panther 3 possibly on the horizon
In a separate interview with Collider, Moore also revealed there are already ideas floating around for a third Black Panther movie, though no specifics have been set. The producer said the following when asked if we could get another movie in the next three-to-four years, or if we will only be seeing these characters in other movies for the time being:
“That’s a great question. To be honest, this is not me trying to not answer the question. We really want to see how audiences receive the film, and I think Ryan’s really interested to see how the film plays before we decide. There are certainly ideas we’ve floated around of what a third film could be if we get to make it. But until the movie comes out, we’re a bit superstitious in that way. We don’t want to count our chickens, because you never know what’s going to happen.”
A scene from Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
New Black Panther: Wakanda Forever featurette
In addition to the new image, Marvel recently released a new featurette focused on Namor the Sub-Mariner, which you can check out below. While the initial wave of reactions coming out of the world premiere was highly positive, we’ll get a better sense of how well it is actually received among critics once the review embargo drops next week. The box office projections currently have the movie opening at $180M-$210M domestically, a very close number to the first movie’s opening weekend.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will debut in theaters on November 11. Ryan Coogler is back in the director’s chair and also co-wrote the script with Joe Robert Cole. The cast includes Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, and the additions of Tenoch Huerta as Namor, Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart, and Michaela Coel as Aneka, among others.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
