Black Panther: Wakanda Forever brought Namor to the big screen, but the Submariner didn’t come to life alone. The Marvel Cinematic Universe film also brought to the big screen members of his undersea kingdom, giving both the iconic hero and his people new looks and new origins. Now, artist Adi Granov is sharing with fans some of the concept art designs created for Namor’s Talokan warriors, including what Granov describes as a “moody, tattooed warrior” as well as a female Talokanil with designs inspired by Mexico.
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“Character design explorations for Wakanda Forever, “Granov wrote in the caption to one of the posts on Instagram which you can check out below. “I was hugely inspired by my trip to Mexico and tried to do a kind of alternate reality version of ancient designs as if they developed by branching out hundreds of years ago.”
“Another Talocan concepts for Wakanda Forever,” Granov wrote on the other design. “Not much to say about this one, just kind of moody, tattooed warrior.”
How Important is Namor for Audiences?
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made some major changes to Namor with the film’s character, played by Tenoch Huerta, haling not from Atlantis but from Talokan, a world influenced by the rich myths and history of Mesoamerican culture. Huerta has previously spoken about how important that representation is.
“It’s important for people to see themselves in the movies in this way,” Huerta told Variety. “It was made with a lot of respect for the Mesoamerican culture, especially Mayan culture. It’s the roots of almost everybody in Latin America. We have indigenous roots, Black roots, we have a few white roots, but it’s fantastic to be here and represent this kind of movie and I think Wakanda is the best place to make it.”
Will there be a Namor movie?
Unfortunately, issues with movie rights are standing in the way of a Namor solo film.
“It honestly affects us more, and not to talk too much out of school, but in how we market the film than it does how we use him in the film,” Marvel producer Nate Moore said. “There weren’t really things we couldn’t do from a character perspective for him, which is good because clearly, we took a ton of inspiration from the source material, but we also made some big changes to really anchor him in that world in a truth that publishing never really landed on, I would argue, in a big way.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in theaters now.