“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”: Why They Changed Namor’s Origin, According to Producer Nate Moore

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” marks a turning point in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga. The Ryan Coogler-directed film closes Phase 4 with a story (re) built around the loss of Chadwick Boseman, who left us in 2020, a tragedy that led to a complete rethinking of the project without its protagonist. However, “Wakanda Forever” is not only about goodbyes, but also about welcome. Those of several new comic book characters that have been stylishly incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

One of them is namor, known as Marvel Comics’ first mutant, making his big screen debut, played by Tenoch Huerta. The Sub-Sailor’s arrival at UCM has raised a lot of expectations, especially since Marvel Studios decided to change his origins from cartoons. In this way, instead of being the king of Atlantis, Namor is the king of Talokan, an underwater kingdom inspired by the Mayan culture. We talked about the reasons behind this change with Nate Moore, producer of the ‘Black Panther’ franchise, who explains why they decided to distance themselves from the comics to create a new mythology around the character.

Moore reveals it The idea of ​​bringing Namor to the MCU was in Coogler’s mind from the first film.. “He said ‘man, if we do a second part, I’d like to put Namor in'”remember the manufacturer. “But Ryan is also a director who wants everything to be based on honesty and truth. So when we thought about how to realistically bring Namor and Atlantis to the screen, we wanted to distance ourselves from the neo-Romanesque architecture of comics, and when we did thinking about the theme of the film, which concerns people suffering at the hands of colonization, Mesoamerica seemed a good tapestry to inspire us, and specifically the Mayan culture, past and present, seemed to us a good point of reference to build our this character and give it that specific value in the same way as Wakanda. “.

“Each new character can be his own franchise”

In addition to Namor, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” marks the official introduction to the Marvel Universe of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), the most recent teenage superhero in Marvel Comics history and successor to Iron Man, who will soon star in her own. series for Disney +, ‘Ironheart’. She joins other new signings such as Eros (Harry Styles), Clea (Charlize Theron) or Hercules (Brett Goldstein), for which there is still no official return. As Kevin Feige has already explained, Phase 4 of the MCU focused on introductions, and Moore confirms this idea when asked if there is a set plan for each new character introduced in the series..

“There is always a plan”it states. “It’s always deliberate when we introduce someone, because we thought about how great it would be to tell that story. But we also want to give our directors and creative teams some leeway to change it. We never said that, and I hope not. we’re ever going to do, “You have to use this character because we think it’s a good idea.” We say, “Hey, we thought it could be cool, what do you think?” And sometimes the directors agree and accept, and sometimes they go out. with something different, so basically it’s about possibilities. everything is built on the love for these characters and the idea that each of them could become their own franchise. The key is to choose who appears and what is the best story to continue.r “.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will be released exclusively in theaters on 11 November.