Tag: The Sub-Mariner

Posted on in Features

The Serpent Crown Could Be Next Big McGuffin Coming To The MCU Leading To Lumerians & The Serpent Society

Yesterday, fans discovered the possibility of Namor (Prince of Atlantis) villain Gargantos being involved in a fight sequence in Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness. It felt like a big hint that Namor is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even the Doctor Strange sequel after Scott Derrickson had teased on Twitter before deleting the post and exiting the film leading to rewrites from Michael Waldron (Loki).

Despite believable rumors of Namor (alongside other characters) showing up in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Atlantis and Wakanda having battled each other before), neither the trades nor Marvel Studios have confirmed this exciting potential. Given that Angela Bassett told Entertainment Tonight there have been at least five versions of the script means that things could have been tweaked/changed over the last year or two.

“There have been about five incarnations of the script and I hear another one’s coming,” Bassett said of the script development of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

While the Darkhold (book of dark magic) is being introduced in WandaVision and should play a large role in Doctor Strange 2, we could be seeing more dangerous items falling into the wrong hands.

The addition of Gargantos may mean another dangerous McGuffin could be coming to the MCU as well. As the comic that featured Gargantos included the former ruler of Atlantis, Naga of Lumeria. The Lumerians are sort of antagonists to the Atlanteans, and their leader Naga wears an object of interest of Marvel Comics, the Serpent Crown. Interestingly enough, Captain America: The Winter Soldier gave them a brief nod with the SHIELD ship in the opening sequence being called The Lumerian Star (seemingly a HYDRA operation).

The Serpent Crown has connections to various villains such as Mephisto (Marvel’s cosmic version of the Devil), Ophelia Sarkissian aka Viper, The Serpent Society (once led by Sarkissian), and the aforementioned Naga of Lumeria.

In the comics, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and the Thing teamed up to fight against Quasar, who was possessed by the Serpent Crown.

The Serpent Society connection is a big standout here. Mainly, because it was the fake title (Captain America: Serpent Society) used before Kevin Feige announced that they would be making Captain America: Civil War and announced the casting of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther. There had been reports that The Falcon & The Winter Soldier head writer Malcolm Spellman and Dalan Musson had been assigned to write Captain America 4, assumed to star Anthony Mackie. So, setting up the Serpent Society as a threat or giving clues to the Serpent Crown beforehand would be a good way to go.

The Serpent Society has a connection to Lumeria, which makes the Lumerian Star tease in Captain America: The Winter Soldier even more interesting given that it was controlled by HYDRA. Viper, also goes by the codename Madame Hydra. They could easily become the successors to HYDRA and make for foes for Sam Wilson’s new Captain America or even the Thunderbolts.

I wouldn’t be that shocked if Val (was an incarnation of Madame Hydra in the comics) or Sharon Carter’s Power Broker are part of this MCU incarnation of The Serpent Society, given that Viper once controlled the island nation of Madripoor, which seemingly we’ll be revisiting in the future possibly in Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings.

Roxxon’s Hugh Jones (who appeared in Agents of SHIELD) attempted to use the Serpent Crown to gain control of the U.S. government in the comics, it’s possible the MCU could reboot that character as they have with the Darkhold in WandaVision. The Loki series, that gave us a true introduction to The Multiverse, featured Roxxon’s Walmart proxy Roxxcart.

I guess we’ll have to wait on March 25, 2022 to known for sure if Namor, Atlantis, and The Serpent Crown are coming.

Posted on in Features

The History of Getting Namor The Sub-Mariner On The Big Screen & Who Marvel Should Considering Casting

Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner has become one of the few high-profile Marvel Comics characters that is still on the table to finally make his jump from the comics to the big screen. The aquatic superhero debuted back in 1939 and was created by Bill Everett, who also famously created Matt Murdock aka Daredevil with Stan Lee.

In the early days of Marvel Studios, a feature film version of Namor The Sub-Mariner was being developed back to 1997 when Variety reported that The Right Stuff’s Philip Kaufman was trying to make a solo movie with Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm. This took place around the same time 20th Century Fox was working on a Silver Surfer movie with director Geoffrey Wright (Romper Stomper) and a version of Fantastic Four from director Pete Segal (Tommy Boy, Get Smart, 50 First Dates).

Universal Pictures got their hands on the rights then attempted their own version of The Sub-Mariner in late 2004 with director Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, Adventures In Babysitting) working from a script penned by screenwriter David Self (Road To Perdition, The Wolfman). Two years later, Universal and Marvel Studios hired Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines) to direct and rewrite the Self script, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Here is the logline for the Jonathan Mostow version.

The movie’s take will see a young man discovering he actually is a prince from Atlantis, with him turning out to be the key man in a brewing war between the underwater world and the modern surface world.

In 2008, British actor and former professional diver Jason Statham revealed to IESB that he met with the studio for The Sub-Mariner, but couldn’t picture himself in the part.

STATHAM: “I took a meeting for Sub-Mariner. I don’t know if I’d look right running around in a tight speedo with wings on my ankles but there’s so many cool fucking characters.”

From there the project dissolved and after the massive success of Iron Man/Phase One there was hope from fans that Marvel could wrangle the character back from Universal Pictures and do their own thing. While there had talk that Namor was completely back at Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige suggested to IGN back in 2018 things were complicated with the rights. At the time, it seemed like there were still issues giving the anti-hero his own solo project.

IGN: With the Disney/Fox deal, if that pans out, with the Sony rights sharing deal with Spidey, the one big loose end, then, is Namor and Universal. Can you tell us what the status of that is? Is there any chance for him to just pop up in an MCU film? It just sounds like an incredibly complicated situation, for one character.

FEIGE: “It is. I think there’s a way to probably figure it out but it does have — it’s not as a clean or clear as the majority of the other characters.”

He obviously could become one of the more crossover-friendly characters as he has connections to Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Illuminati, the original Defenders lineup alongside Doctor Strange and Hulk, The Avengers, X-Men, the WWII era team The Invaders, and ties to Agents of Atlas via his cousin Namora.

There has been years of speculation and rumors concerning when and where Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner will show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, none of that chatter has been confirmed or announced by the studio officially. Despite the ideas he could be appearing in things like Eternals, Black Panther 2 or Fantastic Four. So, there is a possibility that they still haven’t hired an actor to play Marvel’s “first mutant.”

I’d personally like to see Marvel Studios continue their recent trend of looking at actors with a mix of commercial and awards success. You’d have to imagine given that Namor is potentially going to jump around to different franchises they’re going to need an actor with some decent range and wide-range of genre credits.

Here’s a trio of Oscar caliber actors I’d like to see in the Namor role.

RIZ AHMED (AGE 38): Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The Night Of, Sound of Metal, Nightcrawler, Four Lions, Venom, and Jason Bourne.

STEVEN YEUN (AGE 37): The Walking Dead, Minari, Invincible, Burning, and Okja.

DEV PATEL (AGE 30): The Green Knight, Skins, Slumdog Millionaire, Chappie, Lion, Hotel Mumbai, The Newsroom, and The Last Airbender.

Posted on in Features

Marvel Should Tackle ‘The Invaders’ In A Project Set During WWII or The Cold War

Yesterday, it was revealed by Deadline that Chris Evans was nearing a deal to reprise Steve Rogers aka Captain America in a small supporting role (similar to Robert Downey Jr. in Spider-Man: Homecoming) for an undisclosed MCU project. They also mention Evans might be returning for second thing, possibly a film but didn’t reveal what that could be either.

There are a couple of obvious options such as old Steve Rogers becoming a mentor to Sam Wilson in Captain America 4 as he takes over the mantle. Also, seeing what Steve was up to while hiding between Captain America: Civil War to Avengers: Infinity War, not unlike where Black Widow takes place in the MCU timeline. There is the multiple years between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, I’m sure there would still be threats in the wake of Thanos’ snap.

There is another option to add. Thanks to Avengers: Endgame, that Steve was able to go back in time to be with Peggy Carter and stayed there starting in 1948 just when The Cold War begins. Steve as an old man ends up handing Sam Wilson the shield at the end of the film and launching the events that will be covered in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier.

The Multiverse also opens the door to other timelines allowing to them return to WWII.

I think it’s hard to imagine with all the threats surrounding him during that timeline and Peggy Carter’s work at S.H.I.E.L.D. that he doesn’t eventually jump back into the fray between his return and Avengers: Endgame. What would make a lot of sense would be Rogers leading his own team which has previously happened with The Invaders, a group mostly made up of WWII era heroes such as Namor McKenzie aka The Sub-Mariner, Union Jack, Spitfire, the original android version of The Human Torch aka Jim Hammond, Blazing Skull, and multiple other wartime heroes that could get some live-action love.

It’s worth noting that Wyatt Russell’s John Walker aka U.S. Agent, Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson, and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes have been established members on the roster.

There is another superhero that was kicking around during WWII and The Cold War that has teamed-up with Captain America the comics that could make for another excellent addition to those ranks, that being the Canadian super-soldier Wolverine.

Luckily, since Logan doesn’t really age he can be able to time-hop to various eras of the MCU including something like WWII or even futuristic setting like with Old Man Logan.

Rebooting Wolverine is clearly a huge priority to the studio alongside the X-Men and having the anti-hero connect to various MCU characters beforehand wouldn’t be shocking since he’s, like Steve Rogers, he is part of a super-soldier program via Weapon. When his origin takes places in the MCU doesn’t seem to be set in stone and Marvel can certainly tinker with it to fit their needs but I’d personally like to see him running around WWII without his indestructible skeleton and then get it during The Cold War.

It might be a good idea to introduce Wolverine as a supporting character elsewhere so that he doesn’t dominate the main X-Men films as much. The fictional X-Men locale of Madripoor is going to be introduced in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which had many fans jump to conclusions that Wolverine is connected to the Disney+ series, although, there hasn’t been credible information backing up these fan desires. However, it becoming a stomping ground for the mutant eventually wouldn’t a surprise.

If they’re genuinely going to bring Chris Evans back I think it is worth considering giving him another period project since while Captain America: The First Avenger canonically takes place during WWII, it felt like they copped-out by limiting how much fighting he did against the actual Axis. The Cold War era could be another fine option as Steve combating the new threat of The Soviet Union during the height of the nuclear arms race feels just as a plausible of a setting for another adventure.

X-Men villain Omega Red could be a good baddie to use as well given his connections to Soviet Union super-soldier experiments.

It’s worth mentioning we’ve previously seen Easter Eggs to canonical members of The Invaders lineup in previous Marvel Studios films.

Union Jack was teased via Iron Man 2 as Joey Chapman was listed as one of the racers going head-to-head with Tony Stark. The Human Torch is seen encased in glass and Namor’s Atlantis was briefly teased in Captain America: The First Avenger at the Stark Expo (blink and you’ll miss the underwater city nod). The S.H.I.E.L.D. boat called The Lemurian Star in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a direct nod to Namor villains The Lemurians, a sign that something nefarious was happening onboard.

I’m sure we’ll start to get confirmation what Evans is actually going to show up in but I think fans are also quite comfortable leaving old Rogers alone as well given his satisfying ending.