For months now we have heard the rumors that MCU is trying to do just about everything it can to get
Fox to give back the movie rights to the X-men and the Fantastic Four franchises.Their latest attempt comes less than a week ago as reported on Bleeding Cool that they pulled all license for both franchises from XM Studios.
“Folks, it’s been a sad day for us… due to reasons we aren’t at liberty to disclose, we have been asked to put a hard stop to all X-Men characters for now. That means Cable can’t be released, and neither can the awesome Sentinel Diorama which we’ve all been so looking forward to. Still, we continue to have faith that this isn’t an indefinite red light forever and you can have our promise we will be back to producing these dream pieces once the coast is clear – no matter how long it takes! XM Studios Premium Collectibles also added no Fantastic 4 too… same issue.”
This is just one of many steps Marvel has taken to try and get the movie rights back. Recently, we have heard that at the end of Marvel’s Secret Wars the X-men will be shipped off planet Earth accord to Marvels Editor-in-Chief, Axel Alonso.
“The X-Men office is taking the opportunity of Secret Wars to build an entire new world for the characters — to create a shared universe within the X-books that’s set off by a huge event/incident/surprise. At that point, they’re going to introduce a new team that feels unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Thanks to the Terrigan Mist spreading across earth and poisoning all mutants the X-men are forced to find a new world and Marvel intends to fill their place in the world with the Inhumans
“Uncanny Inhumans” allows us to explore the divide between the Marvel Universe-proper heroes and the Inhumans, and see the extent to which it can be bridged. The Inhumans have emerged as a power-player in the Marvel Universe.”
Sadly the Fantastic Four do not fair so well after the Secret Wars According to reports from Bleeding Cool.
“So, yes, the book was cancelled, licenses revoked from licensees including poster, trading card and toy manufacturers. As we originally stated, it has recently been announced that the Fantastic Four will return as a comic after Marvel’s Secret Wars event – but not exactly when. Bleeding Cool still understands that it will be after the promotional and sales window for the Fantastic Four movie has concluded.”
Many fans of both these franchises are feeling hurt and betrayed by Marvel. At what point does the process go to far. I understand that Marvel is doing, what’s best for the company itself, but the fans are the ones paying the price.
Marvel’s Senior Vice-President Tom Brevoort summed up Marvels intentions on Tumbler a few months ago.
“I will say two things, though, both of which are pretty self-evident, I think.
1) There are only so many hours in the day, and so many initiatives you can have going at once. So you need to pick and choose where you want to spend your time and your efforts.
2) If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you’d be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn’t you?”
So it seems the long fight that the X-men have fought for mutant equality has ended thanks to the almighty dollar value of the Movie industry. I for one am hoping this dark cloud in has a silver lining and, like the Spider-Man Franchise, a deal can be worked out between the companies where in the Fantastic Four and the X-men can be moved back into the good graces of Marvel Comics.
