Tenoch Huerta, who plays Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, talks about how important it is that Indigenous cultures are shown in the movie.
On the poster for the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, you can see Namor, Namora, and Attuma.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Tenoch Huerta has talked about how important it is that Indigenous cultures are shown in the Marvel movie.
Wakanda Forever, the last movie in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is set to come out on November 11.
In the sequel to Black Panther, which came out in 2018, the fictional country of Wakanda will be mourning the death of their king, T'Challa, who was played by the late Chadwick Boseman in the first movie.
After their king dies, the people of Wakanda have to fight to protect their country from invaders and the threat of the undersea country of Talokan.
Namor the Sub-Mariner makes his movie debut in Wakanda Forever. He is one of Marvel's oldest comic book characters (played by Huerta).
Namor has been on the Marvel roster since the company was called Timely Comics. He was once one of Timely's most important characters, along with Captain America and the first Human Torch.
Namor made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Black Panther 2. Director Ryan Coogler and his team changed Namor's comic book home of Atlantis to a kingdom from Aztec and Mesoamerican mythology.
Heurta, a Mexican actor, is said to have taught himself Mayan language to prepare for the role.
Screen Rant went to a press event before Wakanda Forever came out, where Huerta praised Coogler and his team for giving Namor a Mesoamerican background.
The actor who plays Namor called the decision "a great idea" and said that "now is the perfect time" to talk about and celebrate the cultural roots of Indigenous people in Latin America.
Read what he said in full below:
"I think it was a great idea for Ryan and the rest of the team to give Namor this background.
Now seems like the right time to talk about it.
We deny our indigenous roots in Latin America, especially in Mexico.
Sometimes it's just like a token, but in general, we don't believe it.
We don't care about genes because almost everyone in Mexico has African or indigenous roots. Instead, we care about culture.
We have moved away from our Indigenous roots in terms of culture.
So, let's honor these two main sources in Latin America, which are African and Indigenous roots, by embracing them.
"I hope this makes it easier for people to accept who we are.
Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that what you see is fine.
They taught us to be ashamed of who we are, but now it's time to stop and say, "Yeah, this is who I am, and there was never anything wrong with me."
The mistake was made by the people who looked at us and judged us.
Most of the time, it was us who did it.
So, it's time to take off the rose-colored glasses and accept our ancestors as part of who we are.
Now, it's happening in a movie like Ryan Coogler's Black Panther.
I think it's the best way to talk about it and the best way to show it.
And that's really cool."
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Even before the first Black Panther movie in the MCU, T'Challa and the made-up world of Wakanda did a lot to promote diversity and inclusion.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made Black Panther in the middle of the 1960s. He was the first African-American superhero to appear in a mainstream comic book.
When it was time to give the character his own big-budget movie, the first Black Panther movie was the first Marvel Studios movie with a black director and a mostly black cast.
Because of the film's cultural importance and undeniable quality, it was a big step forward for putting black voices in mainstream movies.
The success of the first movie gave Marvel Studios the confidence to make more different movies with a wider range of directors.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Ms. Marvel might not have turned out the way they did if Coogler and his team hadn't laid the groundwork for them.
Now, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has the chance to do for Indigenous Latin American voices what the franchise has already done for African voices.
