Over the past several years, fans of Marvel Comics characters have been truly blessed. After years of nothing but Batman and Superman movies, Marvel has firmly staked its claim as the king of the box office. Unfortunately, all that success has come with a price, and the big studios that own the rights to various Marvel characters are gearing up for a turf war that may prevent some of the biggest characters in the Marvel universe from ever appearing on screen together.
Our story begins in the dark days of the mid-90s. The comic book market had collapsed, largely driven by DC’s Death of Superman and Batman: Knightfall extravaganzas. Marvel Productions was on the verge of bankruptcy, and in an effort to raise capital auctioned off the movie rights to their most valuable properties: Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. Other characters like Blade, Daredevil, the Punisher, and Ghost Rider went along for the ride as well, all ending up at more than half a dozen different studios throughout Hollywood.
After emerging from the bankruptcy fiasco, Marvel Productions was no more, remade as Marvel Entertainment. Recognizing the potential gold mine they were sitting on, Marvel began the process of bringing its own characters to the big screen without handing over creative control to the studios. Over the next several years, Marvel regained the rights to a number of characters that had been licensed to different studios that had failed to act on them, which eventually culminated in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with 2008’s Iron Man and continuing through 2012’s The Avengers.
However, the shortsighted mistakes of the mid-90s have continued to haunt Marvel to this day, and are now rearing their ugly heads.
Right now, there are three main outstanding groups of Marvel characters whose movie rights are not held by Marvel itself: the X-Men (held by 20th Century Fox), the Fantastic Four (also held by 20th Century Fox), and Spider-Man (held by Sony). These groups include not only the heroes themselves, but their Rogue’s Galleries and supporting characters. The nature of the comic book as a medium has resulted in a great number of crossovers, in which characters well known in one group, like Wolverine in the X-Men, can appear often in another, like the Avengers. This has lead to a number of characters being stuck in a grey area, where certain parts of their backstory belong to one studio, while other parts belong to a different studio. The logical conclusion is cooperation to avoid confusion, but Hollywood is not a logical place.
Hollywood has a checkered past when it comes to superhero movies, which is doubly true when it comes to Marvel properties. As an example, let’s look at 1994’s The Fantastic Four, directed by Roger Corman. Roger Corman, for those unfamiliar with his work, is famous (or infamous, depending on who you talk to) for being a B-Movie director. The rights to the Fantastic Four had been purchased by German producer Bernd Eichinger in 1986, with an expiration date of December 31st, 1992. As the end of the year approached, Eichinger asked Marvel for an extension, which Marvel refused. Consequently, Eichinger recruited Corman, who started production on December 28th, 1992. The film was eventually completed, and scheduled for a tentative release of Labor Day weekend, 1993. The world premiere was eventually pushed to January 19th, 1994. Whether or not Eichinger and Corman had intended to produce a B-Movie or not is still up for debate, but they did anyway, which caused some consternation from Marvel, concerned that one of their marquee franchises would be irrevocably tainted and devalued. Consequently, Marvel purchased the film and destroyed all the copies.
Since then, a number of Marvel properties have met ignominious fates at the box office. Pretty much every non-Marvel Studios film with a Marvel character has flopped, either critically or financially, at some point. Some characters, like Daredevil, got a single shot, blew it, and languished in Development Hell. Others, like Punisher, got two and struck out both times. Sony made approximately a gazillion dollars with Spider-Man, and then phoned in Spider-Man 3. The X-Men franchise has X-Men 3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Even Jessica Alba in spandex and Julian McMahon in full scene-chewing mode as Doctor Doom couldn’t save either Fantastic Four film. Truth be told, the only studio that has a good track record with Marvel properties is Marvel Studios itself.
So, what does all this have to do with a fight over movie rights? Well, as I mentioned earlier, some characters are so well-known for being part of competing franchises, they exist in a legal “grey area” and can exist in two franchises at once, provided certain rules are followed. In this case, we’re talking about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the mutant children of Magneto, members of the X-Men, who are also long-standing members of The Avengers. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver can be put on film by either 20th Century Fox, who owns the X-Men rights, or Marvel, who own the Avengers rights. 20th Century Fox can’t talk about the Avengers, Marvel can’t talk about them being mutants, the X-Men, or being Magneto’s kids, and neither of them want to talk about the incestuous Ultimate versions of the characters at all.
A few weeks ago, The Avengers director Joss Whedon let slip that he was considering introducing a brother and sister team for The Avengers 2, which could only mean Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Shortly thereafter, X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer announced the inclusion of Quicksilver in his film. Reportedly, Singer is only including Quicksilver for a single action sequence in a film already loaded down with two franchises’ worth of stars, whereas The Avengers 2 will only potentially be adding Anthony Mackie’s “Falcon” and Don Cheadle’s “War Machine”, along with the twins.
This isn’t the first time the studios have played hardball over character rights either; last summer, Fox approached Marvel Studios, looking for more time to develop a reboot of Daredevil, with Joe Carnahan expected to direct. In exchange, Marvel asked for the rights to characters from the Fantastic Four universe, most notably the planet-eating giant Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer. Fox balked, and earlier this year the Daredevil rights reverted back to Marvel.
What makes the whole saga more interesting is that apparently, Fox and Sony have collaborated on rights before, with Sony letting Fox borrow Kingpin from the Spider-Man rights for 2003’s Daredevil. Going back even further, Sony and Fox have repeatedly asked to use S.H.I.E.L.D. in their films, but have been rebuffed by Marvel each time.
Of course, there’s the proverbial eight hundred pound mouse in the room in the form of Marvel’s new owners, Disney. Disney’s pockets give Marvel the means to go to war with Fox and Sony if necessary, and the price tag could reach into the tens or hundreds of millions.
Most normal, sensible people would look at the success these three studios have had with these properties and conclude that creating a shared Cinematic Universe that includes The Avengers, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man would be in everyone’s best interests. But, as we all know, Hollywood is not filled with normal, sensible people. Instead, what we’re likely to see is a legal turf war over character rights, with Fox duking it out with Marvel over Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as a proxy fight over the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large, while Sony will reboot Spider-Man every few years to keep him out of Marvel’s hands. In fact, if Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver appear in both X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Avengers 2, it’s likely that the lawyers could get involved, potentially delaying The Avengers 2 or extracting huge financial concessions from Marvel. That being said, now that Marvel has the rights to Matt Murdock (“Daredevil”) and Jennifer Walters (“She-Hulk”), two of the Marvel Universe’s most accomplished legal professionals, as well as Mickey Mouse’s checkbook, I wouldn’t bet on Fox and Sony to win this one in the courtroom or the box office.
Photo: Flickr
