Kevin Feige Adresses Namor's Complex Rights Status
It may be awhile before the Sub-Mariner appears in the MCU.
In a recent interview with IGN. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige dishes some details about the tricky contractual rights for Namor the Sub-Mariner. Feige also discusses about how the potential Disney-Fox deal could affect the cinematic future of Marvel's ruler of oceans.
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.
Kevin 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.
When Feige talked about Namor the last time with IGN, there were rumors circulating that Universal and Legendary Pictures were developing a Sub-Mariner movie, but it was unclear who held the rights. Feige confirmed that Legendary Pictures wouldn't be able to make the film, and if there ever was a solo film it would be from Marvel Studios.
Currently, Universal holds the distribution rights to the character, which poses the same problems for a standalone movie for the character as it has for Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. Which is the reason why Ruffalo appeared in Thor: Ragnarok and will appear in the next two Avengers. Instead of having a solo film. Last year, Ruffalo confirmed that we'd never see him as the Hulk in his own film because Universal doesn't "know how to play well with Marvel." Sony Pictures is an example of a studio playing nice with Marvel. At my website the Boardwalk Times we covered Marvel's complicated character rights. We knew once the Disney-Fox deal was complete. Marvel would eventually decide to go after the character rights from both Universal and Sony Pictures. To finally complete the universe they have been building without any constraints.
Namor is a pretty important character in the Marvel Universe. He is a member of the Illuminati. A secret group of the most powerful superheroes from different sections of the universe. Namor represents the seas, Iron Man represents Avengers/U.S Government, Reed Richards represents the science based superhero community, Black Bolt represents the Inhumans, Doctor Strange represents the mystic arts and supernatural side of the universe, Professor X represents the mutant community. Black Panther also convenes with the group to represent Wakanda. Namor plays a big part in the Illuminati especially if the MCU ever decides to go that route for post Avengers 4.
Namor brings an interesting anti-hero to the table for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is a shame that Universal Pictures decided not to play nice with Marvel Studios.
