MCU Phase 4: 10 Things You Need To Know About Namor

Namor the Submariner is a character who has long seemed like he belonged in the MCU, but the chances of him ever joining always felt distant. He’s different to anything Marvel Studios currently has, and even though the issue of the character's on-screen rights has convinced fans the Atlantean will never come to live action, that could be set to change.

Avengers: Endgame seemingly teased the character in a short exchange between Okoye and Black Widow, and he'd be just the thing to set Phase Four alight. Plus, with major heroes departing after Endgame and several other shakeups to the universe, there couldn’t be a better time for Namor to shake things up even further.

Black Widow, Iron Man and Vision are dead; Steve Rogers is old, Sam Wilson is Captain America, Gamora has had a hard reboot but the Guardians (now including Thor) have not. Doctor Strange doesn’t have the Time Stone, plus Valkyrie is ruler of Asgard - which is now in Norway - and by all accounts it looks as though the MCU is heading into uncharted territory.

But what should fans know about Namor before he heads to the big screen? From his origins to his potential role in Wakanda, here's the lowdown on Marvel's preeminent sea-dweller...

One of Endgame’s best moments was Iron Man delivering his last line, ‘I am Iron Man’, followed closely by Captain America finally saying the iconic phrase ‘Avengers assemble’.

Still though, you’d be hard pressed to argue that these are actually catchphrases. ‘Avengers assemble’ might be in the comics, but on screen they’ve held off on using it. No one would argue that the payoff wasn’t worth it, but that still means there’s a lot of room for catchphrases in the MCU.

Black Panther has ‘Wakanda forever’, and Namor has a battle cry of his own to rival it. With ‘Imperius Rex!’ Namor can help make catchphrases a major part of Phase 4 in the MCU.

The phrase literally means ‘commander of the army’ in Latin, but typically it’s just a nonsensical thing Namor shouts as he runs into battle. He recently told Thor it meant ‘I’m going to feed you to the sharks’, so maybe it has a general ‘whatever you feel’ kind of meaning to it.

Regardless, it brings an extra level of ‘comic bookiness’ to the table if Namor is going to be leaping through the air yelling ‘Imperius Rex!’ on the big screen, so it should definitely come with him.