Ryan Coogler Praises Aquaman

• Ryan Coogler has praised the Marvel/DC team for their work on Aquaman.
• The new villain, Namor, was introduced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. We wanted to lean into the things that make those two characters different from each other.
• This is only the most recent example of the growing “relationship” between Marvel and DC.

After acknowledging that Jason Momoa’s role in Aquaman helped Black Panther: Wakanda Forever establish the aquatic enemy, Namor, Ryan Coogler has become the next person to help the previously icy relationship between Marvel Studios and DC Studios warm.

Tenoch Huerta Mejia, who portrays the film’s main adversary, is a standout from Black Panther 2 and has long been a significant figure in Marvel comics. He has been put on hold due to Marvel’s focus on other supervillains, but Coogler was happy with the way things turned out. Coogler praised DC for their work with Aquaman in an interview with Uproxx, where he also detailed how the Marvel creative team handled the introduction of Namor.

“I do think that having Aquaman out in the world, in film language, and being successful in the marketplace, I think it was a great bit of indirect guidance for us to lean into the things that made Namor different from Aquaman. Just out of respect to the audience because a lot of people saw that movie. A lot of people love that movie. It was our task to, obviously, put our heads down and blinders on and make our movie, but also have a sense of awareness of what the marketplace might want to respond to, and might be interested in. I think giving people something different, if you can give somebody something good, that’s also unique, I think it’s always better. We wanted to lean into the things that make those two characters different from each other because they have a lot of other similarities in publishing.”

In the same evening that Coogler made his comments, Dwayne Johnson congratulated the Black Panther cast on the Marvel film’s opening to the highest-ever box office total for the month of November. Johnson was kind in his praise when Black Adam, which had been the top film in the world since its premiere last month, lost its crown, adding “Beautiful!!! eager to watch the film “and Black Adam signed off, staying in character.

This is only the most recent example of the two companies growing “relationship,” which has become even more intriguing in light of the recent announcement that James Gunn and Peter Safran will co-manage DC Studios. In response, Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, said that he was “excited” to see Gunn’s DC projects and that he would be “first in line” to see any future projects that Gunn worked on. Feige also said that he didn’t know how Gunn would find the time to run the studio on top of finishing his work for Marvel on the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. Both Feige and Gunn have previously stated that there is no real competition between the two studios. Gunn even invited Feige to the set of DC’s The Suicide Squad (2021), which he wrote and directed after being briefly and contentiously let go by Disney for previous Tweets he had posted.

To see more of Namor, and the work Coogler has done on Wakanda Forever, head to your local theaters now.

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