Are Marvel and Fox Studios finally collaborating?
The Producer and host of Marvel Movie News and co-host of Fatman on Batman Matt Key mentioned this very subject on a recent episode of Fatman on Batman:
“I’ve heard from a few of my sources, my little birds, that Fox and Marvel have… kind of talked, but not really, but like there’s interest from Fox, like, ‘Ooh, y’know, what they did with Sony and Spider-Man is actually pretty cool, like, maybe…’ We’re years away from that ever possibly happening… but I think that’s what it would take… Fox joining hands with Marvel…”
While this is strictly rumor and pure conjecture at this point, it does play to the hopes and wishes of countless fans who would love nothing more than for these two studios to finally play nicely together in their proverbial superhero sandbox. So let’s talk about how likely this is, what potential projects could come of this and what others have opined about regarding this potentiality.
This summer’s massive blockbusters Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse have firmly driven the stake in cinematic high-ground and have assured that the genre will be around for many years to come. Marvel has their Marvel Cinematic Universe plotted out in to the next decade but sharing of characters, of which there are untold and untapped thousands, is a possibility. Taskmaster, for example is a common antagonist to Deadpool yet his first appearance was in 1980s Avengers # 195. This takes him off the table for Fox’s list of Deadpool villain options automatically, but not if this potential collaborative agreement is true.
The Fox Studios pathway for their X-Men franchise is plotted out to the future as well but not nearly as far as Marvel Studios and with far fewer movies that have set release dates. The Wolverine 3 will be released first (March 3rd 2017) followed by another X-Men ensemble movie on July 13, 2018 (which is to be set in the 1990s era), and movies such as Deadpool 2, Gambit, X-Force, New Mutants that all remain unconfirmed as it pertains to specific release dates. This opens the doors quite a bit for options for Fox Studios. Deadpool director Tim Miller warned of the rumors and the legalities of such a project but keep in mind this was last year;
“But as a fan, you just want to go, “Fuck man! Why can’t I see that?” Because that’s what I got in comic books. What’s more, they had DC/Marvel crossover events that were just stupendous. On a creative level, you just want to say that comic books is just a huge world. I read Marvel, and I read DC, and I read Image, and I read small independent publishers. I’ve got a “Goon” comic book from Dark Horse. I love all of that stuff. To me, it’s all one big world.”
Mark Millar has been quoted recently as saying; “Maybe all the studios get together and do a massive event movie. And I think you don’t want to see that too much. I like the idea of them all being little self-sustaining things that when they do come together it should be special, and if it does happen in five years, it doesn’t happen again for another five.”
Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine and Old Man Logan has stated; “I would love it. … You’re in a very complex world where big, big sums of money are being spent for different franchises and so getting them together is difficult. Two years ago I would have said you’d be a real optimist to think it would ever happen, but weirdly I just think it maybe could. I think there is a possibility that it will happen.” Jackman has noted that he was trying to get some Avengers to cameo in Wolverine 3, his final outing in the role.
Precedent for this type of studio collaboration very recently when Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios brought Spider-man in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In 2012, the comic book world saw the crossover event Avengers Vs X-Men by writers such as Jason Aaron, Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis and more. In the 1980s the teams left earth to do battle in a Secret Wars event. They were forced to work together to defeat a large team of villains off-planet (a direction the MCU is heading in rapidly). Prior to that the Contest of Champions occurred off-world as well and involved the entire Marvel roster. Could any of these be it? While AVX was the latest crossover, there have been a great many times that the two bookends of the Marvel Universe have met, fought side by side and have fought against the other such as the Secret Wars example above. If the studios were to do a Civil War-esque film, it would be a humongous undertaking and a massive blockbuster and would most likely happen some time in the next decade. What is most likely to happen first is that characters such as Taskmaster, Deadpool, certain characters such as Scarlet Witch or Quicksilver would be shared amongst the studios.
Whatever comes of this rumor, comicbooked.com will be watching and ready, excited for the prospects and the all the doors that this would bring.
