Namor and Wakanda's Pact: Will Talokan Fight Alongside Doom or Earth?

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever left Namor and Talokan in a strange, tense place: not enemies of Wakanda, not quite allies, but two nations that agreed to stop trying to kill each other. Nearly four years later, with Avengers: Doomsday confirmed for December 2026 and Doctor Doom confirmed as its central threat, a question keeps surfacing in fan circles: if Doom needs bodies on his side of a coming war, does he knock on Talokan's door before he ever talks to the surface-world Avengers?

Nothing in this piece should be read as a leak or an official plot detail. Marvel Studios has never put Namor and Doom in the same scene or script. What follows is a theory built from what Wakanda Forever confirmed about Talokan's politics, how Doom operates as a character, and the confirmed mechanics of Incursions already established on-screen. Treat every claim below with the confidence label attached to it.

What Wakanda Forever Actually Confirmed About Talokan's Loyalties

Here is what is locked into MCU canon, no speculation required. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever confirmed that Namor rules Talokan, a hidden underwater nation built by Indigenous Mesoamerican people who fled surface-world colonization centuries ago and gained powers, including his own, from a vibranium-adjacent resource beneath the ocean. The film confirmed Namor's power set on-screen: flight, super-strength, and near-invulnerability, alongside a weakness tied to prolonged exposure to sun and dry air. It confirmed Talokan's historically justified hostility toward surface nations, and Namor's initial plan to draw Wakanda into a war against the rest of the world, before Shuri talked him into a pact instead.

That pact is the load-bearing detail for this entire theory. Wakanda Forever ends with Namor and Talokan as wary, pragmatic allies of Wakanda, not enemies or neutral bystanders. No film or series since has revisited Talokan's foreign policy on-screen. Where that alliance stands now, years later, is unconfirmed.

Who Is Doctor Doom, and Why Would Talokan Even Matter to Him?

If you need the fundamentals on Victor von Doom first, this site's beginner's guide covers his comics history and what Robert Downey Jr.'s version has confirmed so far. The short version for this theory: Doom is not just a sorcerer in a metal mask, he is a head of state. Latveria, across decades of comics, is a sovereign nation Doom rules directly, and every version treats diplomacy and alliance-building as seriously as magic or science. A Doom building toward a Secret Wars-scale conflict thinks in terms of nations, not just individual heroes.

That is where Talokan becomes interesting. It is one of the only nations on Earth with power roughly comparable to Wakanda's: a vibranium-linked resource base, a population with real combat capability, and a ruler with god-tier personal strength. It also carries centuries of distrust toward the surface world, baked into its founding story. On paper, a nation like that is either a natural recruit for anyone building a coalition against surface governments, or a natural target for anyone trying to keep it neutralized. Nothing here confirms which one Doom would choose, which is why this theory exists.

None of this is new territory for Doom as a character. Comics continuity, not MCU-confirmed material, has him striking deals, betrayals, and uneasy truces with rulers from Wakanda's Black Panther to entire alien empires, always as tools rather than genuine friendships. That comics-context precedent doesn't confirm how Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU version behaves, but it explains why a Doom-Namor negotiation is plausible in tone, even with zero on-screen evidence.

The Incursion Clock: Why Alliances Would Matter Before Secret Wars

The Incursions are the on-screen reason this urgency exists. Incursions are confirmed MCU canon, established in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the two confirmed causes shown on-screen are dreamwalking, how Wanda Maximoff triggered one, and uncontrolled universe-hopping, America Chavez's star-portal power. Avengers: Doomsday is set up to involve multiple distinct universes colliding, and Robert Downey Jr. is confirmed to play Doctor Doom across both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

None of that confirms a Doom-Namor alliance, but it confirms the stakes involved. If the multiverse is buckling, a political operator like Doom has every reason to lock in alliances with any nation powerful enough to matter, before the final Incursion forces everyone's hand. Talokan fits that description whether Doom ends up as Earth's enemy, its unlikely protector, or something stranger than either.

A ruler who has already refused to bow to the surface world once doesn't need to be conquered. He needs to be convinced.

The Doom Gambit: Our Theory for Why He Tries Namor First

Here is the part of this article that is pure speculation, invented for this piece and reported nowhere else. If Doctor Doom moves to build a coalition ahead of the final Incursion, Talokan is a more logical first stop than most surface governments, for a handful of reasons.

1. Shared grievance. Talokan's founding trauma is colonization and exploitation by surface powers. Doom's worldview, in every version of the character, treats surface governments and hero teams like Captain America's Avengers as obstacles to his idea of order. That overlap is easy diplomatic ground to build on.
2. Matching power tier. Doom needs less of Talokan's army than a ruler whose strength, flight, and near-invulnerability make him a peer among gods and super-soldiers, not a bystander.
3. Resource independence. Talokan's vibranium-adjacent deposits mean Doom would not need Wakanda's permission first. For a full breakdown of how that resource compares to Doom's usual toolkit, see our vibranium, adamantium, and Uru comparison.
4. A working precedent. Wakanda Forever already proved Namor will negotiate rather than fight to the last soldier, when terms respect Talokan's sovereignty. A political operator like Doom would likely read that ending as an opening, not a dead end.
5. Geographic and political isolation. Talokan sits outside the surface world's alliance structures entirely. That makes it either a quiet ally to approach, or a wild card Doom would want neutralized before anyone else recruits it.

Why Namor Might Say No: The Case for Wakanda Holding

The strongest argument against this theory is the ending of Wakanda Forever itself. Namor did not choose war. He chose a pact with Wakanda, brokered by Shuri, the new Black Panther, on terms that let Talokan keep its independence while gaining a surface ally it could trust. The two parted as something closer to allies than rivals, and nothing in confirmed MCU material since has walked that back.

There is also a simpler read on Namor's motives. His grievance was always with colonizing surface nations, not every surface nation by default. A Latverian ruler offering an alliance against the surface world is still a surface-world ruler asking an underwater king to trust him. Namor spent an entire film learning what happens when trust comes too quickly. Wakanda earned its pact through respect and a shared threat. Doom, in every confirmed and comics-based version, tends to demand loyalty rather than earn it, the exact dynamic Namor already walked away from once.

A Three-Way Pull: Talokan, Latveria, and Doomsday's Bigger Picture

If Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars does put Talokan in play, the most dramatically interesting version is not a clean choice between Doom and Earth. It is a three-way pull: Wakanda pulling on history and trust, Doom pulling on shared grievance and a raw offer of power, and Talokan's own council split on which risk is smaller. What is currently known about Avengers: Doomsday's plot does not confirm Namor's presence in the film, so this scenario remains hypothetical until Marvel Studios says otherwise. Even a single confirmed line tying Latveria to Talokan would upgrade this from theory to reported fact, which is why it is worth tracking as more casting and plot details emerge.

Secret Wars is widely reported, though not officially confirmed by Marvel Studios, to draw on a Battleworld-style story where fragments of destroyed universes get stitched together under Doom's rule. If that reporting holds up, a ruler like Namor, who already survived one existential threat by choosing pragmatism over pride, is exactly the kind of leader a Battleworld narrative would test again. Whether he tests as Doom's ally or obstacle is the open question this article is built around.

Where This Theory Stands Right Now

Let's separate the layers one more time. Confirmed: Namor rules Talokan, the nation has vibranium-adjacent power near parity with Wakanda, and it ended Wakanda Forever in a pact with Wakanda rather than a war against it. Confirmed: Robert Downey Jr. plays Doctor Doom in both upcoming Avengers films, and Incursions are real, on-screen MCU mechanics with two confirmed causes. Reported but not officially confirmed: Secret Wars leaning on a Battleworld-style story. Pure speculation, invented for this piece: that Doom actively courts Namor for an alliance against the surface world before the final Incursion hits.

Until Marvel Studios casts Namor in Avengers: Doomsday, gives Talokan a line of dialogue, or confirms any contact between Latveria and Talokan, this stays a plausible theory built on real character logic, not a scoop. Keep an eye on the cast lists as they roll out between now and December 2026. If Tenoch Huerta's name shows up on one of them, this theory gets a lot more interesting overnight.