'Black Panther Wakanda Forever': Who is Namor? MCU movie's big villain explained

Box office collection: $1,336 billion

Marvel's Black Panther was a revolutionary movie that superpowered all the other Marvel movies. The Chadwick Boseman movie became the first Marvel movie to ever get an Oscar nomination in the Best Picture category. The MCU movie earned seven nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, winning three.

One of the reasons the film won acclaim from critics and audiences was its villain. Played by Michael B Jordan, Erik Killmonger was not your typical MCU villain. He had solid motivations to be resentful of T'Challa and the Wakandans, for they had not interfered during the transatlantic slave trade (when millions of Africans were shipped primarily to the Americas, auctioned and sold like chattel), during the Apartheid in South Africa, and so on. His father was also killed by T'Chaka, T'Challa's father and former Black Panther. But his prime motivation was to rule Wakanda and avenge all the oppression done to the Africans. 
 

Killmonger's motivation can be summarised in his final words to T'Challa, before he died of his wounds. He refuses T'Challa's offer to be medically treated and then locked up, which he presumes to be another slavery. “Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage," he says and then dies. It is safe to say, Killmonger will not return in the sequel.
 

Many MCU fans will be curious whether 'Wakanda Forever' can also pull off a villain who is on the level of Killmonger. In the sequel, it is Namor who is the Big Bad. However, he is not Namor the Submariner we know from comics. In the lore, Namor is Marvel's equivalent of Aquaman, though he predates the DC superhero. He is a mutant, and the son of a sea captain and the princess of Atlantic, the underwater kingdom thought to be submerged thousands of years ago that is populated by Homo mermanus, humanoids who can breathe underwater. Namor has superstrength and abilities to control water. He has been both an anti-hero, superhero, and a supervillain out to avenge the wrongs done by surface-dwellers. 
 

In 'Wakanda Forever', like many characters earlier, Namor (played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta) has received a sort of reinvention by Marvel Studios. In the movie, he is the king of Talokan, derived from Tlālōcān in Aztec myths', which is a paradise, where spring never ends. Talokan in the film, however, is an underwater kingdom like Atlantis, and its inhabitants can breathe underwater as their physiology is a cross between human and fish.
 

Namor launches an attack on Wakanda in the film along with his army of blue-hued warriors (their look has drawn comparisons to the Na'vi) because he is miffed after the late Wakandan king exposed his kingdom before the world, and opened its borders. Namor believes this puts Talokan in jeopardy as that kingdom too has been hidden from surface-dwellers' eyes for centuries. Coogler has described the character as "kind of an a**hole, kind of romantic, and just incredibly powerful". 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever',
 

The film has received mostly positive reviews. It holds a rating of 86 per cent on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. The critical consensus reads, "A poignant tribute that satisfyingly moves the franchise forward, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marks an ambitious and emotionally rewarding triumph for the MCU."
 

'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' releases on November 11 in India.