Tenoch Huerta became the person on everyone’s lips in Hall H after Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever teaser trailer premiered during the San-Diego Comic-Con 2022. The trailer received an overwhelmingly positive resonance due to its tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who passed at age 43 in 2020 due to his battle with colon cancer.
The trailer shows Wakanda’s invasion by Talocan (formerly known as Atlantis in the comics), led by Namor, the Sub-Mariner, played by Huerta. Who is Huerta and what can fans expect from his role? Let’s take a look.
Who is Tenoch Huerta?
Huerta, whose full name is José Tenoch Huerta Mejía, is a Mexican actor with origins from the Aztec and Purépecha civilizations, according to IMDb. He mostly appeared in Mexican movies and short films, including On the Edge, Malamados, en la soledad todo esta permitido, Déficit,Café paraíso, Nesio and more. He also starred in Mexican TV series including Capadocia, El encanto del águila, Cloroformo, Hasta Que Te Conocí, Blue Demon, Here on Earth and more.
His most recent films include Dark Forces, Madres, and several films in post-production, including Tare (which he has also written) and Fireflies at El Mozote. Huerta is also listed as a producer for the film Sinvivir and is given a soundtrack credit for the film Días de gracia.
Huerta became known to American audiences through Narcos: Mexico when he played Rafael Caro Quintero. He also earned more American fans from his role as Juan in The Forever Purge. He is also featured in journalist/writer Mónica Maristain’s book 30 Actores Heches En Mexico (30 Actors Made in Mexico).
What can fans expect from Huerta’s Namor the Sub-Mariner?
Fans are speculating about what they will see from Huerta’s portrayal of Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. First, what viewers might want to prepare for is possibly seeing Namor as a villain for most of the film. The villain set-up could allow him to transform into a good guy later in the film, possibly due to the reveal of a bigger conspiracy that would make him side with the Wakandans.
The potential turn from villain to hero aligns with Namor’s development in the comic books. According to the character’s mythos, Namor is either a hero, anti-hero, anti-villain and a supervillain. He is also the king of Atlantis. With MCU’s reinvention of the character and Atlantis as a whole, Atlantis will now be called Talocan, based on the Mayan and Aztec civilizations.
Another hint as to what fans can expect from Namor comes from the fact that the upcoming phases will involve Secret Wars and incursions. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is rumored to be based on Jonathan Hickman’s run of The Avengers and New Avengers, which involves multiverse incursions and a tense conflict between Wakanda and Atlantis, with Namor joining a supervillain organization called the Cabal in an effort to retrieve one of the Infinity Stones.
Also, fans are hoping to explore Namor’s relationship with his mother, Fen, his viewpoints of Wakanda and the tensions between the two nations.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes to theaters in Nov. 11, 2022. Along with Huerta, the film stars Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Danai Gurira, Florence Kasumba, and Michaela Coel. Namor will share many of his Talocan scenes with María Mercedes Coroy, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli. Dominique Thorne will be introduced as Ironheart, the next keeper of the “Iron Man” mantle.