Four Comic Book Franchise Roles Manu Bennett Could Be Perfect For

Above is an image of Aussie actor Manu Bennett performing the Haka with fellow actor Jason Momoa. It's a cool picture for a couple of reasons, it establishes Manu's Maori background and he's posing with an actor with a career I see him paralleling very soon.

Jason recently became Warner Bros' Aquaman in a multi-picture deal which includes Batman v Superman, Justice League Part 1-2 and his own Aquaman film.

I have a feeling Manu is going to be in this position very soon and could end-up reading for some big franchise roles. Thanks in part to playing Azog The Defiler in the Hobbit Trilogy and becoming a standout on CW's Arrow as Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke.

It's likely impossible to see the actor reprise that role in Zack Snyder's DC Comics cinematic universe. Since we've heard from studio heads that the TV and film universes are indeed separate entities. Even though David Goyer had been developing a Deathstroke film for the studio, it's very unlikely that role will go to Manu.

This just means Bennett could be open for a whole bunch of franchise comic book roles. I'm sure there will be a point where Fox, Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. could all be courting the charismatic Aussie. We saw a similar thing go down for Dwayne Johnson and Jason Momoa when they suddenly started landing on studio radars.

Which comic book franchise roles do I think Manu is best suited for?

CABLE:

Cable is a character known for his bulked-up stature which fits the bill for Manu. Not to mention his use of weapons that Bennett has lots of experience with. Having actors like Stephen Lang and Dwayne Johnson in the mix for fan campaigns it's more likely producers will look elsewhere. If fans can deal with Johnson playing Nathan Summers then they should be okay with Bennett playing him.

We've been hearing for years that X-Men producers are looking to explore ways to include Cable into the X-Men universe. While it's possible they could have him apart of X-Men Apocalypse, it's likely there might be too many things going on to bring back time-travel.

Jeff Wadlow's X-Force is seemingly the place for a solo Cable film which could see him founding or leading the covert team of mutants. Wadlow has said in the past Cable is a strong candidate for the film. However, other X-Men movies like Deadpool could leave the door open for cameos and supporting roles for him as well.

Fox could also just randomly announce a solo Cable film like they recently did with Channing Tatum's Gambit movie.

LOBO:

Trust me Warner Bros. will likely have eyes on Manu for something cinematic in the future. The one role I think could be a good fit is alien bounty hunter Lobo. An anti-hero biker character that peeked the interest in Jason Momoa before announcing he landed the Aquaman role.

Warner Bros has been developing a Lobo movie for ages. That was until DC Entertainment froze all the DC film projects, to pursue their own cinematic universe. Director Guy Ritchie would eventually leave Lobo to make The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and is now working on Knights of The Roundtable.

Actors such as Clancy Brown and Jeffrey Dean Morgan had been in talks with producer Joel Silver for the role. Jeffery Dean Morgan going so far as to do camera tests in costume but would later take the role of Thomas Wayne in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman. Giving the impression he wouldn't be going back to Lobo anytime soon.

Other actors such as Dwayne Johnson and Jason Momoa were thought to be linked because of their connections to possibly taking DC roles. It was later confirmed that Johnson would be playing Black Adam in Shazam and Momoa would be playing Aquaman in a bunch of movies including a solo film.

There had been speculation the character was going to be cast in either Batman v Superman or Justice League because of old Justice League script outlines including Lobo as a possible villain. It remains to be seen if the alien bounty-hunter ends up a villain before his solo outing.



San Andreas director Brad Peyton was recently tasked to develop a new version of the film but there hasn't been any updates since his announced involvement.

PUNISHER:

I've been kind of playing around in my head who could be best for this role in a reboot and luckily a lot of actors could play Frank Castle. My wish-list includes latino actors Edgar Ramirez (Zero Dark Thirty, Domino, Bourne Ultimatum) and Pablo Pascal (Game of Thrones). This could also be another gun-play character Bennett would be perfect for.

Marvel got the Punisher rights back that had been held by Lionsgate. The company has been sitting on the franchise but it's possible they could pursue a television series focusing on Frank Castle. Fox had commissioned a pilot for series but that didn't come together and it just vanished.

Marvel has been mainly focusing on family friendly entertainment when it comes to their film slate. This doesn't mean Marvel won't do something with the character sometime in the future. They could always make a Netflix series or film, the latter hasn't been talked about but could happen in the future. The studio producing low-budget R rated films could help balance the risk.

Rumblings had been circling that Marvel could put together a Punisher series at some point. Some believe it could be a strong candidate for the second wave shows for Netflix, but it sounds like the four shows already setup could get multiple seasons. A couple of people have suggested taking it to AMC or FXX because of it's violent content, but Netflix seems to do fine with material like that airing shows like House of Cards and Marco Polo.

Punisher has a lot of options if Marvel does decide on bringing him back to the big or small screen.

There has been interest from Marvel screenwriter Drew Pearce (Runaways, Iron Man 3) to get involved with a Punisher short which could lead to a series, perhaps on Netflix. Drew wrote and directed All Hail The King, a short which focused on Seagate Prison (connected to both Ant-Man and Luke Cage) revealing the existence of the real Mandarin.



Another interested party includes Knights of Badassdom and Everly director Joe Lynch stating on Twitter he'd love a crack at Castle. Lynch made his own Marvel short film entitled Truth In Journalism which focused on a dark version of Spider-Man villain Venom which was set in the "bootleg" Marvel universe.



I'd also like to see John Wick director Chad Stahelski considered as well. Keanu Reeves ended-up in the mix for Doctor Strange because of the deserved buzz the film received during early festival runs. Marvel's Kevin Feige showed-up to a public screening of the film which seemed to impress bloggers who attended it.

NAMOR:

Wouldn't it be wild if Marvel Studios or in partnership with Universal/Legendary Pictures did end-up making that Sub-Mariner film?

Manu's previous work experience with sword swinging characters in Spartacus and Hobbit would come into play becoming the Marvel opposite to Momoa's Aquaman. This could be a very fun character for Bennett since Namor has played both hero and antagonist in the comics.

Universal's Namor film hasn't been talked about in a very long time and the assumption is it's stuck in development limbo. Shocking, since the huge wave of popularity with Marvel films you'd think the studio would dust it off and try to put it back into production.

We know that Universal had plans on having Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3, Surrogates) direct it but the studio dropped the project entirely at some point. Jason Statham, the former professional diver turned action star had some interest in the project but was never formally offered the role.

I'm still a bit fuzzy on the actual rights agreement with Universal but if it's similar to Hulk. Marvel could be able to use him in a supporting role, similar to Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner in Avengers installments. If a new solo Hulk film was made by Marvel it's understood Universal would be involved in some way. Their deal for Namor could be the same if it even still exits.

Latino Review heard a rumor back in May of last year that a mystery Legendary Pictures film set for release in November 2016 could be a Marvel property. It's likely that the film they were talking about was actually either The Great Wall or Kong: Skull Island as both were set for that month. Skull Island recently moving it's release from early November to March 2017 to avoid Marvel's Doctor Strange.

Although, Latino Review felt confident in the story at the time.

If Marvel could be able to still use Namor he could become apart of the Inhumans storyline or even involved with Captain America: Civil War. As Namor is the original mutant character, he could be altered to become an inhuman instead to avoid conflict with the X-Men rights. Marvel is already seemingly giving mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch new origins to include them into the MCU.

We know that even though Incredible Hulk was apart of the Universal/Marvel deal, Edward Norton was able to reprise the role in Avengers. Norton just happened to be apart of a bunch behind the scenes issues along with not promoting the film leading to his recasting. It's very possible if someone is cast as Prince Namor, they could play the role in both Universal and Marvel feature films. Allowing the actor to crossover in a bunch of different films without getting entangled with the rights issues.

Wait A Minute, Does Marvel Studios Have The Film Rights To Namor?

Kevin Feige seemingly made it clear nine months ago that Universal was indeed the holder of the movie rights to Namor The Sub-Mariner. Yet, that answer seems to be dwindling as time goes-on. A more recent quote from Feige to IGN, makes things seemingly less clear. We've been noticing Marvel Studios has been teasing Namor for years and there actually might be a reason for this. Is Namor a similar situation to the shared rights of Kingpin, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch?

"No, Namor I think is a little complicated, the way some of them are."

A rumor from LatinoReview suggests that Legendary Pictures' unnamed event film for November 2016, could be a Namor movie. THR went even further than that, and believe that Marvel Studios has more of the rights than Universal currently has. It's very possible this could be another Incredible Hulk situation, as Universal might only have distribution rights. A similar deal was made with Paramount Pictures for majority of the Phase One movies. Disney would eventually buy-out that contract, and paid a hefty price-tag for it.

@EricIGN @StaxIGN Hmm. My digging on both sides of the aisle revealed Namor at Marvel. I'll have to burrow deeper.
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) May 22, 2014

It's possible that Marvel is able to include Namor in their movies (like Hulk), but if they decided to make a feature film with him, they'd have to allow Universal to distribute. That's unless Disney is working on getting those rights back. This could mean we might see Namor become an important antagonist or hero in future movies.

Would you support a Namor movie if it was made by Marvel Studios?

SOURCE: THR

RUMOR: Is NAMOR Legendary's Secret 2016 Event Film?

It was reported that Legendary Pictures/Universal would be releasing a secret even film on November 4th, 2016, The studio failed to reveal it's title or what the project was, something Marvel Studios has made a habit of lately. We had assumed it could be The Great Wall, another monster movie that had been in development for ages, with Henry Cavill in the lead role.

However, LatinoReview has another theory, they believe it could be a comic book movie. Specifically, Namor The Submariner, which has been in-development limbo for ages at Universal. They are treating it as a rumor, but it was confirmed by Kevin Feige over the summer that Namor is indeed still at Universal. We've notice more than a few references to our underwater prince in Marvel Studios' films, so it will be interesting to see if the film is apart of the greater MCU. Since, Universal did play-nice with Marvel when working together on Phase One's The Incredible Hulk. We'll have to wait and see if this is the real-deal.

Legendary was asked about the news, but said "no comment". Which isn't a denial, that we'd expect from something like this, since it's only being treated as a rumor. A Namor movie has been in works for a while now. Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) once tried putting together a script with the intention to direct, and Jason Statham (former Olympic diver) was even interested one point for the role. It's not hard to imagine Legendary going-back to making comic book films, after giving us The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel. The studio has also put-out comic book tie-ins for Pacific Rim and Godzilla.

SOURCE: LATINOREVIEW

SPOILERS: Why Is Marvel Studios Teasing Namor In Their Movies?

This isn't much of a spoiler, but an aspect of Namor is teased in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We've been slowly seeing similar  tidbits used as Easter Eggs in other Marvel films. Marvel doesn't own the film rights, so what's the deal?

Oracle is a real company and has been a tie-in product placement for films. However, they've really only been Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Avengers and Iron Man 3. Most notably a giant glass dome Oracle building at Star Expo. Oddly enough, it could be more than just way for Marvel to add revenue by advertising the tech-company. 

As his human alter-ego Namor Mckenzie runs a corporation named Oracle, which secretly helps envirvomental causes. We've seen a bunch of fictional Marvel corporations teases already, mainly Roxxon which has shown up a bunch of times in Iron Man films (along with Coulson's One-Shot). It's possible that humans along with energy companies like Roxxon are destroying the the oceans, where Namor and his people call home. This could spark a bit of tension between the Atlantians and the humans.

Pulling from the headlines BP oil spills/oil sands pipeline and Fukushima Nuclear Plant still leaking radiation into the ocean, could help influence Namor's motives and place him as a threat. Plus, using the fictional Roxxon might be way not name actual companies. We've already seen how the drone program and NSA scandals have made their way into the narrative of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Having an environmental angle to Namor wouldn't be out of place for the character.

Another shot in Iron Man 2 was indeed hinting to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, with SHIELD's meta-human map. Let's just hope that Hydra has been there first.

Surprisingly, theres another hint to Namor but not in a film featuring Iron Man. The name of the SHIELD boat The Lemurian Star in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a direct hint to a group of Namor's villains.

The Lemurians are similar group of underwater dwellers (different from the blue skinned Atlantians, having scales and greenish skin) that are part of another neighboring kingdom. There are mostly at odds with Atlantis and Namor. It's not shocking that a ship aligned with Hydra, would have links to other Marvel villains.

So why is Marvel teasing him? As it stands now Universal Pictures holds the film rights to Namor The Sub-Mariner. They have been trying to develop a feature for years and even had an early script from David Self (The Haunting, Road To Perdition, Bourne Identity, The Wolfman). Self also tried putting together scripts for Captain America, Deathlok, God of War, and the Robocop remake. Then the studio looked to Jonathan Mostow (The Game, U-571, Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines, Surrogates) to write and direct the project, which never came together. I assume because of critically backlash for T3 and Surrogates. 

Former British Olympic diver turned action-star Jason Statham (Transporter, Expendables, Fast And Furious 7, Snatch, Lock Stock) mentioned a meeting for The Sub-Mariner, in 2008. I'd still love to see Jason in the role, since he's surprising good depending on the material and direction. Fans of Guardians of The Galaxy were a bit shocked when Bradley Cooper (not Statham) took the Rocket Raccoon role. It's currently unknown the status of Namor at Universal. While it seems odd, with such a rise in interest for Marvel films Universal hasn't even hinted to making it.

“I took a meeting for Sub-Mariner. I don’t know if I’d look right running around in a tight speedo with wings on my ankles but there’s so many cool fucking characters.”

The weird thing is, that Marvel hasn't teased other properties they don't own such as X-Men, Spider-Man or Fantastic Four. It's possible that Universal could be developing a co-production similar to The Incredible Hulk, or that Marvel has seemingly found a way to get the rights back (but aren't willing to announced it). However, keeping the film at Universal could allow the studio to make a joint-venture without having to pay the entire production budget. Disney on the other hand, I'm sure would be willing to buy the rights back. As of August 2013, Kevin Feige confirmed the rights are indeed still at Universal. Even though earlier Joe Quesada said otherwise.

It's possible that Namor could have ties to The Inhumans (another in-development film at Marvel) or become the antagonist (starting out as villain to the Avengers before joining them) in almost any future Marvel film. Hopefully, Marvel is able to wrangle the rights back and place him properly. Namor also fought alongside Captain America and Bucky in the super-team the Invaders during WWII. Prince Namor also joined forces with The Hulk and Doctor Strange to form The Defenders, which with different lineup (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage) will have a mini-series on Netflix.

SPECULATION: Does Marvel Want Vin Diesel To Play A Villainous Namor The Sub-Mariner, Making Way For PLANET HULK And THE DEFENDERS?

It was revealed that Vin Diesel could meet with Marvel about a possible role. At that point yesterday there wasn't much to go on besides an old posting of a picture of Vision. A few years back Vin Diesel told MTV his dream Marvel roles would include a villain naming Dr. Doom or Namor The Sub-Mariner. Namor is considered the first mutant but is exempt from Fox's X-Men deal and his film rights are with Marvel. While Doom is securely still with Fox for their Fantastic Four reboot which is about to start production. So it sounds like Marvel might be looking to cast him as Namor McKenzie better known as The Sub-Mariner. He also posted this image as well.

“I would be [more] apt to play a villain,” Diesel revealed to MTV News. “[I'd like to play] the protagonist of a story that is also like a Marvel villain – like Doctor Doom or something.”

“I have some superhero favorites,” Diesel admitted. “I talked to ['The Surrogates' director] Jonathan Mostow about ‘Sub-Mariner,’ which could be interesting because of its World War II-New York connection.”

The sometimes villain and hero has been hinted to in Iron Man 2 with the Meta Human map at a possible location for Namor's kingdom Atlantis along with Black Panther's country Wakanda. Another possible hint to Namor includes his company Oracle with the sprinkling of ads for Sun Oracle Systems in Avengers and Iron Man 3. At one point there were rumblings that both Captain America: The First Avenger and Iron Man 3 would feature him.

Namor could make excellent villain or hero for Avengers 2 or beyond, depending on the plans of Phase Two and Phase Three. Since it's very possible the new threat on Earth could come from the Atlantis. Since Namor did team-up with the Hulk to take on the Avengers in issue three. It's possible that Marvel might be trying to put together a Defenders lineup for the MCU which included Hulk, Doctor Strange Namor and Asgardian heroine Brunhilde The Valkyrie which might setup Civil War for Avengers 3. If Strange is going to be the new Iron Man for Phase Three then he's going to need to lead his own team of superheroes. The Defenders could end up a solid successor to The Avengers if handled properly by the studio. LatinoReview has mentioned The Illuminati being involved with an Avengers sequel leading to a Planet Hulk film which could all fit together nicely if Namor is introduced into the MCU.