If rumours are to be believed, Warner Bros. and DC Films’ Aquaman movie could find itself facing some competition on the underwater adventure front, with Reel News Hawaii reporting that Marvel is planning to go into production on a Namor the Sub-Mariner project.
There's buzz around the island that two rival productions could be swimming on our waters. "Aquaman" & "Submariner". Fingers crossed! pic.twitter.com/1WLbZkWJAN
— Reel News Hawaii (@reelnewshawaii) February 15, 2017
As you can see from the tweet, the report is short on details of any kind, and it’s not even clear if the alleged project would be a movie or TV show, although you’d have to assume the budget required would mean it’s the former. If that is the case, and Marvel is already thinking about locations for the production, one would assume it’s being eyed as a potential Phase Three release, or very early in Phase Four. So, it seems a little strange that we’ve heard absolutely nothing about it until now. That being said, Reel News Hawaii did recently drop some accurate info on The Inhumans so we can’t discount the rumour entirely, and it is surely only a matter of time before we do see Prince Namor as part of the MCU.
UPDATE: MCU Exchange has pointed out that Production Weekly has Sub-Mariner listed as an upcoming project. This isn’t quite official confirmation, but Production Weekly was responsible for revealing that a new X-Men movie is set to go into production, something that has since been confirmed by Sophie Turner.
Universal Pictures had held the rights to Namor – one of Marvel’s earliest creations, who debuted way back during the Timely Comics era in 1939 – for a number of years, although these reverted back to Marvel Studios last year.
Originally published February 16, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
