9/20/2023 0 Comments Black pather drawingThe legend of Atlantis, an advanced civilization supposedly lost beneath the waves thousands of years ago, first appeared in a Platonic parable around 360 B.C.E. “And so we looked at beautiful sculptures of different scenes depicting the lifestyle of post-classic Yucatán, and the feathered-serpent figures were the ones that were the most powerful looking.” Why is Namor’s kingdom called Talokan instead of Atlantis? “We worked with historians who were experts on culture to learn about what part of the trajectory of the ancient Mesoamerica area we would draw from,” Carter tells Men’s Health. To the Aztecs, this feathered serpent deity was more commonly known as Quetzalcóatl. The feathered serpent god.” The moniker comes directly from the Maya, who worshipped a god of the same name and form. As M’Baku, leader of the Wakandan Jabari Tribe, explains in the new film’s trailer, “His people do not call him general or king. Namor’s most impressive headdress alludes to a name bestowed upon him by his people. “There are these vases that they painted to depict figures in headdresses and all kinds of clothing that I used to inspire the clothing of the Talokan.” Carter and her colleagues added jade, kelp and other aquatic elements to the headdresses in order to channel underwater creatures like lionfish and sharks.ĭepictions of Maya deities on a ceramic vessel “We were inspired by all of the pageantry that you see in Mesoamerican history,” she tells Men’s Health. Carter, who won an Academy Award for her work on the first Black Panther film, created a series of intricate feathered headdresses for the Talokan ruler. Namor himself also has a new look, though Huerta retains the comic book character’s signature skimpy shorts, winged ankles and pointed ears.Ĭostume designer Ruth E. One of the biggest changes to Namor’s MCU story is his kingdom’s rebranding as Talokan, a name likely derived from “ Tlālōcān,” an Aztec paradise overseen by the rain god Tlāloc. Mesoamerican Indigenous groups include the Maya, the Olmec, the Aztecs (or Mexica), and the Toltec. While the comic versions of Namor and Atlantis take their cue from Greek mythology, Wakanda Forever draws on a different source of inspiration: Mesoamerica, a historic region spanning modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Marvel Studios What are the Mesoamerican influences behind Namor and Talokan? Namor wearing a Maya-inspired feather headdress “He doesn’t see himself as a villain, because in Namor’s eyes, what he is doing he’s doing to protect a people who have already made it through a tragic history.” (In the comics, Atlantis sinks below the sea following the Great Cataclysm, a disaster unleashed by the Celestials, a race of cosmic beings featured in the 2021 Marvel film Eternals in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, Talokan starts out as an underwater shelter for Indigenous people seeking refuge from Spanish colonization.) “Here is a man who believes 100 percent that he is the hero in his own story,” says producer Nate Moore in a statement. Wakanda Forever’s Namor adheres to a similar code of ethics. His loyalty was to his character, and that made him interesting.” “When you look at his motivation in the comic books,” the scholar says, “it was always about how protect his people. The character’s fierce commitment to his people, rather than an ideology or the pursuit of power, led the young Tlapoyawa to view Namor as heroic, loyal and even romantic. Growing up, Tlapoyawa, who is an Indigenous Chicano of Nawa descent, found Namor’s “ otherness” relatable. His sleek, dark hair, widow’s peak and pointy ears offer visual cues that he is a “nonwhite character,” Tlapoyawa adds. Kurly Tlapoyawa, an archaeologist, author and ethnohistorian who studies Mesoamerican civilizations, says Namor has always been depicted differently from the rest of Marvel’s largely Eurocentric character lineup. He bears great resentment toward terrestrial civilizations that contaminate his ocean realm (among them the Nazis, whom the antihero fights in several World War II-era comics). Endowed with superior strength and swimming skills, he can also fly, making him a worthy adversary. In the comics, Namor is the mutant son of a human explorer and an Atlantean princess. “Maybe the most important twist in the character is that he’s not a selfish person,” Huerta tells Entertainment Weekly. But while T’Challa opened Wakanda to the rest of the world at the end of Black Panther, Namor remains steadfast in his desire to keep Talokan hidden from outsiders. Much like T’Challa’s home of Wakanda, Talokan is a small, secretive, yet powerful kingdom. Portrayed by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, the silver-screen version of Namor has a reimagined backstory, reigning over Talokan, a Mesoamerican-inspired underwater civilization, instead of the legendary Atlantis.
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