TMNT 2's Brian Tee Wants to Play Namor for Marvel Studios

We only just learned that Marvel Studios has the rights to Namor the Submariner, and already actors are throwing their proverbial swim trunks into the ring to play him.

First into the pool is actor Brian Tee, who can be seen this weekend as Shredder, one of several villains in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Tee, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, was asked if he had a dream role. He first noted that "very few and far between, Asian-Americans and people of color are given these opportunities to be leads in films," saying that even if it's not him, "I would love to see more of that. The time has come for us to allow those situations to happen." When pressed, though, he did come up with one: Namor.

"This is what: Just saying, Marvel Studios just picked up the rights to Namor, who is the Submariner, and I would love to play the Submariner," Tee said. "I grew up as a comic geek and the Submariner is one of my childhood's fondest superheroes. I feel like I can play him! If there is one role, right now, that I would love to play, it would be Namor."

Tee talked throughout the interview about his tendency to play villains on film. In TMNT 2 he's Shredder, another character he's loved since childhood, and said he had an "expletive moment" when he first donned the armor and was "standing in Shredder's lair," and saw his reflection (he even dressed up as Shredder as a kid for Halloween!). He also played Shingen Yashida's right-hand man Noburo in The Wolverine, and D.K. in the Fast and the Furious franchise. Namor has often been more of an anti-hero, alternately allying himself with and coming to blows with the other heroes of the Marvel Universe, so it isn't out of his realm there, at all.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is in theaters now. Read our full review here.