Universal Studios is hard at working developing their first shared cinematic universe with their classic monsters like Dracula, Wolfman and The Mummy. But one thing on every Marvel fans minds was the news that Universal Studios actually owned the rights to the Atlantian king Namor and not Marvel Studios. This information came from Kevin Feige himself last year in an off handed remark.

Now this passed week while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter Universal Studios executive Donna Langley revealed that while they are no focusing on their monster cinematic universe the studio actually doesn't own any "capes" i.e superheros:

We don’t have any capes [in our film library]. But what we do have is an incredible legacy and history with the monster characters. We’ve tried over the years to make monster movies — unsuccessfully, actually. So, we took a good, hard look at it, and we settled upon an idea, which is to take it out of the horror genre, put it more in the action-adventure genre and make it present day, bringing these incredibly rich and complex characters into present day and reimagine them and reintroduce them to a contemporary audience.

Now we may be reading to much into this but several months ago Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter also mentioned that Marvel Studios had gotten back the rights to Namor but this of course was never confirmed.

The reason for the massive grey area revolving around the character is because back before Disney bought Marvel Studios it was Universal who helped co-produce and co-own The Hulk in Edward Norton's The Incredible Hulk. So many assumed that it's possible that Universal may be willing to co-own Namor as well if Marvel wanted to use him. But now if this information includes Namor that Universal really doesn't own him at all!

Now while his character isn't mandatory for the Civil War storyline gonna be seen on the big screen in Captain America 3. He does play a large role in the comic and seeing him first appear in that setting would make the most sense for just an introduction. But of course that is just wishful thinking. If DC Comics is brave enough to bring Aquaman to the big screen it's about time Marvel returns with Namor...

It has been long suggested that the King of Atlantis himself Namor was under the Marvel Studios banner. Some suggested that he is actually at FOX given in the comics his people refereed to him as a "mutant" as well as having strong ties with the Fantastic Four. This proved to be inaccurate given Namor doesn't have the Mutant X gene thus not contractually a Mutant. He simply has pink skin compared to his blue skinned kin. 

Then this past summer Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige revealed that Universal Studios of all places owns the rights to Namor. This came out of left field for most fans given we only know the main three studios to own Marvel characters is Marvel Studios, FOX and Sony.

Now Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter dropped some details that the King of the Oceans maybe used by Marvel Studios after all!

But at least one thing is wrong: Universal does NOT have the rights to the Sub-Mariner. Marvel has them.
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) May 22, 2014

This through us all for a whirl since we all took Feige's word as gospel on the matter. But one other character is technically at both Universal and Marvel Studios. Back in 2008 when The Incredible Hulk debuted it was revealed that Marvel Studios had gotten the rights back to him as long as Universal Pictures gets distribution rights. This may very well be the same case for Namor!


Lest we forget Atlantis was also shown (As well as Wakanda) in 2010's Iron Man II on a S.H.I.E.L.D database screen. As well as the ORACLE company being hinted to in the film as well.



Oh, by the way Marvel if you need an actor I'd go with Zachary Quinto!

Stay tuned as this story develops...

Several days ago one of the Jake Lester over at Comic Book Therapy asked a great question on Twitter about who owns The Kingpin. It was revealed last year that when Kingpin was used in 2004's Daredevil feature film, he was actually "loaned" to FOX by Sony since he is actually under the Spider-Man contract banner.

Well, the guys on IGN decided to ask Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige about who actually owns The Kingpin himself. It turns out Marvel and Sony get to use to Kingpin! "Kingpin we either have or somehow share." Along the lines of how FOX and Marvel is allowed to use Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch.

They also went onto ask about if Elektra came over with Daredevil since their were several rumors saying she was not apart of the Daredevil banner. Lucky for you Elektra fans she is at Marvel Studios as well! Unfortunately Namor is another story...

"No, Namor I think is a little complicated, the way some of them are.  Elektra I think we have. I think that was part of Daredevil, and that's clean and simple."

Here is a Photoshopped image of Zachary Quinto (Heroes, Star Trek) as Namor: The Submariner. I've been saying for years he looks exactly like Namor even with his Spock ears especially. Also, recently its been revealed that somehow Marvel Studios DOES NOT own Namor but rather Universal has the film rights. With Universal not in the superhero movie game maybe he will revert back to Marvel eventually!