Is a Namor the Sub-Mariner Movie Coming in 2016?

Everybody knows that Marvel's properties are spread amongst a number of different studios. Sony has Spider-Man, 20th Century Fox has Fantastic Four and the X-men, and of course Disney and Marvel have pretty much everything else. But what many have forgotten is that Universal has the rights to Namor the Submariner, one of Marvel's most enduring characters, and now a rumor has emerged that he may be about to get his own film.

This wouldn't be the first time Universal has tried to get Marvel's king of the seas on the screen. About five years ago Jonathan Mostow (Surrogates) was attached to direct the film, but it ultimately sunk to the depths. So where is the news about this latest attempt coming from? From the guys at Latino Review, of course, who are springboarding off a vaguely worded press release issued by Universal and Legendary Pictures earlier this week that stated "Legendary Pictures’ Untitled 2016 Event Project will be released by Universal Pictures on Friday, November 4, 2016.” THR's report says the unknown film would be "new and not a sequel or remake, though it may be based on underlying intellectual property." And at least to Latino Review that equates to this being a Namor movie.

To further support this piece of scuttlebutt, they sight that Warner Bros. is really trying to get an Aquaman movie off the ground and obviously Universal and Marvel want to derail it. They even go so far as to speculate that Zac Efron, recently rumored for a Marvel role, could be a part of it.  So it's a lot of "ifs" and zero certainty, and with Universal having a number of popular properties to pick from (remember they still have Mass Effect!) they could be up to anything.

And yet, there's still a good chance it will turn out to be Namor. The character has very close ties to the Fantastic Four as he's always mackin' on Sue Richards right in front of Reed; and he's also one of Captain America's pals in The Invaders. He's also recently been a member of the X-men. Unfortunately, Universal won't be able to use any of that stuff and will have to make this a truly standalone Namor effort with no other Marvel characters. Can it be done? Absolutely. Will it? We'll just have to wait and see.