Will Namor be the villain of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? Rivalry between Atlanteans and Wakandans explored

The first trailer for the highly anticipated Black Panther: Wakanda Forever debuted last week, giving us an interesting look at what we can expect from the upcoming film. With the nation of Wakanda grieving over the death of its king T'Challa, a new threat arises that forces our heroes at play to protect their home by any means necessary.

In the same vein, during Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's panel at the San Diego Comic-Con, we also got the confirmation of Tenoch Huerta playing the role of Namor the Submariner in the upcoming sequel. With this confirmation, a lot of questions have arisen since the trailer presented Namor in an antagonistic light.

So, let's take a look at the most important one of all, and see how Namor's story might be incorporated into the upcoming film.

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Will Namor be the villain of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?

T'Challa stabs Namor (Image via Marvel Comics)

In the comics, Namor has always been portrayed as an anti-hero. On many occasions, he has been a villain when the story required him to be, but mostly, he only intervened when it bothered him or Atlantis.

With the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it is teased that Wakanda and Atlantis will be at conflict with each other. You can see glimpses of the Dora Milaje fighting against Altantean enforcers, and in one particular scene, M'Baku also launches at Namor with a stick.

The trailer, clearly painting Namor as a villain, hints that this will be the main conflict of the story. In the comics, Wakanda and Atlantis are the most advanced societies on Earth. So, there is bound to be a rivalry between them. Moreover, the countries have fought each other on many occasions earlier.

Tensions between the two nations would arise when Black Panther would chase after Atlanteans who would have stolen Wakandan tech. Namor and Black Panther would ultimately get into a fight when the decision of which party would get to punish the robbers gets out of hand.

Namor vs Black Panther (Image via Marvel Comics)

During the huge comic book crossover of Avengers vs X-Men, Atlantis would launch a full scale attack on Wakanda when it would be discovered that the Earth's Mightiest Heroes were hiding there. Working with X-Men, Namor, who had the Phoenix Force within him, would push a huge tidal wave against Wakanda which would end up killing many. This would officially put both nations at war with T'Challa and Namor having one of the biggest rivalries in comics.

Now, as Chadwick Boseman is no longer with us, we can't really expect that rivalry to be showcased over here. It's been heavily rumored that Shuri will be the new Black Panther in the film. However, the trailer does give us an idea relating to how the conflict might go. Avengers: Endgame also spoke about how Wakanda had tremors in its nearby oceans. So perhaps that could be it?

Namor launches an attack on Wakanda (Image via Marvel Comics)

There is also a scene in the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that saw a ship with people in heavy armour go inside the ocean. Looks like maybe Atlantis' peace might have been disturbed, and Namor might have asked Wakanda for help but they denied, which might have caused him to retaliate.

While Namor might still end up being a villain, there is the threat of Attuma as well who is confirmed to be in the movie. With Attuma being Namor's arch nemesis in the comics, we can even expect Black Panther and Namor banding together to take down Attuma.

However, we will only know the truth when Black Panther: Wakanda Forever releases in theaters on November 11, 2022.