The DC Extended Universe might be five years and ten movies younger than the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but they got to explore the underwater kingdom first. They already introduced Jason Momoa as Aquaman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and his standalone movie is scheduled for release on July 27, 2018.
Marvel Comics has its own aquatic character, Namor the Sub-Mariner, who actually debuted in the pages of the comic books before Aquaman did. In fact, he was one of the most popular Timely Comics (predecessor of Marvel) characters during the Golden Age.
And Steve McFeely, one of the co-screenwriters of all three Captain America movies, Thor: The Dark World, and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War movies, wants Namor to be introduced as part of the MCU!
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McFeely and his writing partner, Christopher Markus, were asked what Marvel character they would want to see down the line in an MCU venture. While Markus is interested in Marvel Zombies, here's McFeely’s response:
Namor. He is kind of a jerk, and has a chip on his shoulder, and he is a king and lives underwater. The degree of difficulty is so high, though. ‘Cause it could be a great movie, or it could be truly terrible.
Is Aquaman an obstacle between Namor and the MCU? (Photo Credit – DC Movies Wikia)
Over the last few years, there's been confusion over who owns film rights to Namor. The rights belonged to Universal Pictures from 2001 through 2014, when they finally reverted to Marvel Studios.
However, Marvel President Kevin Feige stated that they would need to sort out some contracts and deals before using the character in a movie.
But, with the DCEU already working on Aquaman, would it be wise to go for Namor at the moment? Well, if you are familiar with the comics, you know that there's a good bit of difference between the two aquatic characters.
Aquaman is a superhero and a founding member of the Justice League. Namor is an anti-hero (probably the first one in comics) who has stood in the path of other heroes on an many occasions.
But it would be a very dicey project to undertake, since general audiences might not care about who came first in the comics. They’re more likely to care who came first in cinema. So, whether Marvel Studios would be interested in taking such a risk remains to be seen.
