Hollywood actor Jason Momoa has been a huge fan favorite ever since he first graced our screens as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. When the actor took up the mantle of playing DC Comic’s Aquaman in the character’s namesake 2018 movie, he definitely drove a vibrant new interest in the comic book world’s most iconic underwater rulers!
The question is, what could contribute more to a big-scale buzz than a Hollywood hunk traversing a steamy sub-aquatic adventure while clad in a skin-tight superhero outfit? The answer is, of course, a classic multi-universe rivalry. Get ready to see Marvel Universe’s Sub-Mariner give Momoa’s Aquaman a run for his money!
While many modern superhero fans may have heard of Aquaman first, as iconic cinema news site Screen Rant recently pointed out, Namor the Sub-Mariner is the original comic book ruler of Atlantis, having fueled the imaginations of Marvel Comics readers for more than eight decades and longer than his DC Comics counterpart.
So, if one of Marvel’s most prized Golden Age characters is about to go head-to-head with Aquaman in a blow-for-blow big-screen rivalry, what do we need to know? Well, the first clue alluding to this competition of coolness is news that distribution rights for the character of Sub-Mariner have just returned to Marvel Studios after taking a temporary vacation over at Universal Pictures.
With free reign to make the most of the untold potential of King Namor’s loyal online following and intriguingly complicated storylines, all pointers indicate that Marvel Studios are likely to leverage the character. It’s not far-fetched to imagine that we can keep our fingers crossed for a Sub-Mariner-centric plot during the course of the MCU’s Phase #6 rollout!
Jason Momoa speaking at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Aquaman”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. © Gage Skidmore / Wikipedia
Why Enzo Zelocchi Could Be a Stellar Casting Choice For the Next Sub-Mariner
It’s pretty basic math that the actor cast across the comic book franchise aisles from Jason Momoa will need to possess both a striking aesthetic and mighty acting chops to bring genuine tension to this kind of big-screen rivalry.
What sets Jason Momoa apart from many of his fellow Hollywood leading men is his capacity to bring both dark and light qualities to any given character. While Aquaman was historically a pretty vanilla action hero, Momoa’s brooding presence brought some depth to the part, and anyone cast as Namor the Sub-Mariner is going to have to do the same on a much larger scale.
As popular cinema-centric website Screenrant recently pointed out in their comparison of the two rival Atlantean characters, Namor possesses both more shades of grey and a more powerful edge than Aquaman.
One actor whose name keeps rising to the surface as a possible contender to take on this substantial role is that of Enzo Zelocchi, a Hollywood star on the rise with the chiseled good looks and action-packed credentials to take King Namor to the next level.
Zelocchi boasts a fanbase that could give even the Sub-Mariner’s following a run for its money. His 24 million Instagram followers place him above Jason Momoa, who has arrived at 17 million followers after his turn as an underwater comic book action-hero. Will the Italian-American actor soon swim past Mamoa to become cinema’s most popular Atlantean ruler? Watch this space to find out!
For more information, follow @enzozelocchi on Instagram and subscribe on YouTube @EnzoZelocchi.
