The Marvel Cinematic Universe is well known for its Easter eggs – just think back to how Stephen Strange was first mentioned in Captain America: The Winter Solider, itself released before a Doctor Strange movie was confirmed to be in development. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that Namor's appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was signposted back in Avengers: Endgame.
During Endgame, the Avengers who survived Thanos' snap, later called The Blip, have a meeting in their headquarters. Black Widow leads the discussion, with Captain Marvel, Rocket Raccoon, and Okoye beaming in via holograms from their locations. Widow asks about the "tremors" that have been affecting Wakanda, and Okoye replies: "It was a mild subduction under the African plate."
"How are you handling it?" asks Natasha Romanoff. "It's an earthquake under the ocean," Okoye claps back. "We handle it by not handling it." Turns out, Okoye and the Wakandans had to really handle the underwater situation after Namor and Talokan waged war on their people.
At the time of Avengers: Endgame's release, the movie's writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely said that the scene was not a reference to Namor ("I wish we were that smart," Markus told The Hollywood Reporter) while the film's co-director Joe Russo simply said it was "maybe" a hint at what was to come.
Of course, the writers and directors of Endgame were never going to confirm Namor's appearance in Black Panther 2 until director Ryan Coogler publicly made the announcement. Indeed, Namor's appearance was a secret for a few years; Tenoch Huerta's role was kept a secret when he joined the cast back in 2020, over a year after Avengers: Endgame's release.
Perhaps more pressingly, though, there was a separate issue that prevented Namor from coming to the MCU. Coogler had previously wanted to tease Namor back in the first Black Panther, with the movie's original post-credits scene featuring the throne of Wakanda with wet footprints leading up to it. However, the rights to Namor belonged, in part, to Universal Studios, meaning Marvel was unable to give the filmmaker the go-ahead to tease the character.
The issue stemmed from the late '90s when Marvel sold the rights to a bunch of characters to various studios. The Right Stuff's Philip Kaufman was, back in 1997, developing a movie about Namor: Sub-Mariner (around the same time the first X-Men movie went into development at Fox and James Cameron was attached to a Spider-Man movie). Even after all these years, other studios still have distribution rights to Marvel characters, the most prominent example being Universal legally having the distribution rights to Hulk solo movies, hence why Ed Norton's The Incredible Hulk (part of the MCU) was a collaboration between Marvel and Universal.
At some stage over the last decade, the rights to Namor transferred back to Marvel. However, there still appears to be a Hulk-like loophole with Universal keeping the distribution rights to any Namor solo movie. That could very well stop the anti-hero from appearing in his own spin-off. Unless, that is, Marvel can work out a deal with Universal for the character – and seeing as a World War Hulk project has been teased through She-Hulk, as well as Namor now being a part of the MCU, it appears Marvel and Universal are playing ball.
So, was that really a Namor tease in Avengers: Endgame? Legally, perhaps not, but we all know the truth. Ryan Coogler always wanted Namor in Black Panther 2, and the filmmaker eventually got his wish. For more on the sequel, be sure to check out our guides to:
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ending explained
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever post-credits scene explained
- Who is the new Black Panther?
- All the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Easter eggs listed
- Everything we know about Black Panther 3
- When is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Disney Plus?
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on the Marvel timeline
- Everything we know about the Ironheart series
- All the new Marvel movies and shows coming soon
