BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER Director on Namor's Winged Ankles - "You’ve Got to Lean Into the Weird Stuff"

I’ll be honest, when I saw Namor the Sub-Mariner flying around with his winged ankles in the last trailer that was released for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, I had a big smile on my face. I wasn’t really sure if Marvel or director Ryan Coogler would actually attempt to pull it off! But they did, and it looked both amusing and cool. I enjoyed how they had him flying around like a hummingbird.

It seems like most fans enjoyed Namor’s ankle wings, but of course, there are those that didn’t care for them. During a recent interview with EW, Coogler talked about the winged ankles and defended them, saying:

“I think with making these types of movies, you’ve got to lean into the weird stuff, or you risk missing what makes it fun. [Namor’s] got really unique features and things that don’t necessarily go together. He can breathe underwater, obviously, but he’s got these little wings on his ankles. He’s got pointy ears and walks around in his underwear. It’s all fun, man.”

It is all fun, and that’s why I’m glad that he leaned into that weird stuff about Namor. Now, they did change some things about Namor for the film. In the comics, Namor is from the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. But, the MCU version of Namor is from "Talocan," which is rooted in the mythical Aztecan aquatic paradise of Tlālōcān. This makes the lore more in line with Huerta’s Mexican heritage.

The director went also talked about how the film will handle the death of Chadwick Boseman and the in-film death of King T’Challa. Coogler explained:

“I had to find a way that I felt like I could keep going and a way that our ‘Black Panther’ family could keep going. I started to come up with a film that had elements of the film that we had just finished writing, but also applied the themes that the people who were hurting just as much as me could actually perform and execute and come out on the other side whole.”

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will star Tenoch Huerta, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Kasumba, Angela Bassett, and Martin Freeman.

The movie is set to be released on November 11th, 2022.