Current Events > What would have happened if Disney never bought Marvel?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Would someone else buy them?

Would Marvel Studios try to convince Fox/Sony to let them work on their properties and be a part of the MCU like they did with Universal?

Would 20th Century Fox not be sold off?

Would Marvel keep licensing out their movie game tie-ins to anyone who was willing?

Would the MCU not have succeeded in the long run?

Would Disney be dominating the box office regardless?

Kinda weird to think about.
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I'm not sure. I think they would still be making movies, and be doing at least decently. Someone else could have bought them honestly.
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Everything up to the first Avengers movie would have been the absolute same. You might even be able to say that about up to Age of Ultron. Anything outside that however, would have been a flaming wreck as they would have needed to dig into B and C list heroes to either make it work or at least be believable. And we already know that certain heroes were included in the first 3 phases simply because of their comic history and not their selling points.

That said, I could openly speculate that Blade might have been introduced far sooner.
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Lunar_Savage posted...

Everything up to the first Avengers movie would have been the absolute same. You might even be able to say that about up to Age of Ultron. Anything outside that however, would have been a flaming wreck as they would have needed to dig into B and C list heroes to either make it work or at least be believable. And we already know that certain heroes were included in the first 3 phases simply because of their comic history and not their selling points.

That said, I could openly speculate that Blade might have been introduced far sooner.

Why would they need to dig for phase 3 without Disney? And all the characters they used up to that point besides the Hulk were C list heroes.
But mostly why wouldn't they be able to do Dr Strange, Black Panther, Civil War, Thor Ragnarok without Disney? Or any of the other movies. The biggest one in question would he Spider Man. But considering it worked out Because Kevin Feige asked his friend at Sony Amy Pascal, it probably would have worked out. The major difference was that Marvel originally had a panel of people from the comic book side that had a say in the movies, including the Brian Michal Bendis, and I think Joe Quesada and other people. They are the ones who wanted lots of references and build up to other movies shoe horned in when it didn't always work. Like Thor's vision scene in the water from Age of Ultron. And I think they are the ones who probably got into the most disagreements with Edgar Wright about Ant-Man. I could be wrong though.

But Kevin Fiege was the guy mostly in charge either way, he told the Captain America guys to do Civil War, he planned out all of it. Phase 3 would have had more of those shoe horned sequel tie in things, and possibly their budgets would be smaller.
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You can sorta piece some things together on the wiki

Universal was contracted for 5 Marvel Studios movies

https://deadline.com/2008/09/exclusive-paramount-to-distribute-next-marvel-films-7083/

Im told that Paramount and Marvel have done a big overall deal calling for the movie major to distribute Marvels next self-produced films on a worldwide basis. The deal includes theatrical distribution in foreign territoies previously serviced by Marvel through local distribution entities (Japan, Germany, France, Spain, and Australia/New Zealand). The pics are Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010) and 3 (unscheduled), Thor (July 16, 2010), Captain America (May 6, 2011), and The Avengers (July 15, 2011).

They must have been spewing when Disney bought the company.

Right before Disney bought them they were working out how to do more movies.

Marvel will invite up to five writers each year to work on specific projects, said a source familiar with the deal. Those could include staffers behind Marvels comicbooks. Tenpercenteries around town are currently pitching potential candidates with writing samples.

The company will provide the specific pitches it wants the scribes to tackle. Those could involve certain plot points for movies already in development or characters it would like to see in its future film slate.

Gathering of scribes will help Marvel come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spider-man-standoff-why-sony-thinks-it-doesnt-need-kevins-playbook-anymore-1233644

I actually think it's possible Disney bought them due to those talks

Interestingly mere days before it was announced that Disney bought Marvel it was announced that Marvel got the Spidey TV rights. I wonder if that was due to the upcoming TV purchase.

Interestingly Fox approached Disney and Marvel to co-finance a Daredevil movie which was rejected (sound familiar?)
https://deadline.com/2012/08/looks-like-daredevil-will-go-back-to-marvel-and-disney-318943/

Outside of that we can only speculate. Kevin Feige seems like he knows a whole lot about the Namor rights so it wouldn't surprise me if he was trying to work that out with Universal.
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MrNintendo1213 posted...

Lunar_Savage posted...

Everything up to the first Avengers movie would have been the absolute same. You might even be able to say that about up to Age of Ultron. Anything outside that however, would have been a flaming wreck as they would have needed to dig into B and C list heroes to either make it work or at least be believable. And we already know that certain heroes were included in the first 3 phases simply because of their comic history and not their selling points.

That said, I could openly speculate that Blade might have been introduced far sooner.

Why would they need to dig for phase 3 without Disney? And all the characters they used up to that point besides the Hulk were C list heroes.
But mostly why wouldn't they be able to do Dr Strange, Black Panther, Civil War, Thor Ragnarok without Disney? Or any of the other movies. The biggest one in question would he Spider Man. But considering it worked out Because Kevin Feige asked his friend at Sony Amy Pascal, it probably would have worked out. The major difference was that Marvel originally had a panel of people from the comic book side that had a say in the movies, including the Brian Michal Bendis, and I think Joe Quesada and other people. They are the ones who wanted lots of references and build up to other movies shoe horned in when it didn't always work. Like Thor's vision scene in the water from Age of Ultron. And I think they are the ones who probably got into the most disagreements with Edgar Wright about Ant-Man. I could be wrong though.

But Kevin Fiege was the guy mostly in charge either way, he told the Captain America guys to do Civil War, he planned out all of it. Phase 3 would have had more of those shoe horned sequel tie in things, and possibly their budgets would be smaller.

Budget was the first thing to come to mind. I think they might have been able to sell well until AoU or maybe an odd one shot or two just after.

However, AoU also used Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver which were Fox properties at the time due to being mutants. If Marvel had tried that stunt without the backing of Disney behind them and also putting it on the line that "we'll buy Fox," do you really think Marvel as a standalone company would have been successful? I don't. Fox would have sued the fuck outta them or tied them up in contracts so long we would have had to deal with something else in the franchise just so they could turn a buck.

Spider-Man is the other obvious problem in moving forward. Without key success examples, Sony probably would have told them no. Dr. Strange, budget problem since it tried to ride hard on the success of Inception. Black Panther would have been fine, but the plot would probably have been different and I'm guessing no Wakanda or a much toned down version of it.

As for speculation, we probably wouldn't have gotten a workable version of Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man (which I really liked both movies). We would have gotten them trying to shoe horn in smaller street level characters like Dare-Devil that already proved to have not great reception at the box office.
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Paramount signed a 5 move deal after just Iron Man. I think their credibility was pretty inevitable with their talent. It is interesting to think about. Would Paramount go for Guardians of the Galaxy if Thor was a hit? Or would Paramount step in and try to fuck it up? Or would Marvel Studios be shopping themselves to different companies? Or was it always their goal to be bought?
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Nah, Fox and Marvel already both knew how the twins worked. Kinda like the Skrulls. They could both use them, but couldn't reference any parts that were specific to the other franchise. No mutant talk in the MCU, and no Super Skrull either.

And the movies were selling just fine either way. People didn't go see the movies because they heard Disney owned them, they went because they just liked them. And why wouldn't we get Guardians or Antman? Feige still had final say on what movies were being made for the most part, and he trusted in James Gunn's vision. Budgets might have been a little less, but sometimes that can be a good thing due to less oversight and people being worried about making the money back.

The main thing is that either way Feige was still the guy driving the ship. All Disney did was help get some extra funding and let him bypass the overseeing board from Marvel that liked the shoe horned references.
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Darmik posted...

Paramount signed a 5 move deal after just Iron Man. I think their credibility was pretty inevitable with their talent. It is interesting to think about. Would Paramount go for Guardians of the Galaxy if Thor was a hit? Or would Paramount step in and try to fuck it up? Or would Marvel Studios be shopping themselves to different companies? Or was it always their goal to be bought?

Paramount is why I agree that it works up until first Avengers.

I honestly don't think they would have agreed to GotG because Thor's success really fuckin' tanked hard with Dark World just based on reviews and his original appearance in his own movie had mixed reviews too. Some thought it was a good "origin tale" but as I recall, it wasn't the most popular by far.

Also, I think we're kind of forgetting the Hulk's place in all this...does anyone think that he would have stuck around after the contract???

Now the goal to be bought is an interesting concept. Quite possibly, it was...I remember an odd interview from back in the day that the thinking of Marvel at the time was "why can't we bring in our whole house of characters into one picture?"....the obvious answer was sold off movie rights.
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MrNintendo1213 posted...

Nah, Fox and Marvel already both knew how the twins worked. Kinda like the Skrulls. They could both use them, but couldn't reference any parts that were specific to the other franchise. No mutant talk in the MCU, and no Super Skrull either.

And the movies were selling just fine either way. People didn't go see the movies because they heard Disney owned them, they went because they just liked them. And why wouldn't we get Guardians or Antman? Feige still had final say on what movies were being made for the most part, and he trusted in James Gunn's vision. Budgets might have been a little less, but sometimes that can be a good thing due to less oversight and people being worried about making the money back.

The main thing is that either way Feige was still the guy driving the ship. All Disney did was help get some extra funding and let him bypass the overseeing board from Marvel that liked the shoe horned references.

I would readily agree that the films would have had a much tighter tale told, but at the end of the day, Hollywood operates on budgets. And average movie goers prefer spectacle to our nerd loving tale-telling.
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Hulk is interesting yeah. Universal had distribution rights because they made an agreement with Marvel Studios that they would have first dibs on any Hulk movie but Marvel could use Hulk in other movies.

I wonder if the long term goal for Marvel Studios was to reach similar deals for the Fox and Sony characters. It's such a weird and unique thing. Of course Hulk 2003 flopped so maybe Universal didn't really care and wouldn't have bothered with an Incredible Hulk sequel. I think it's more likely it would have happened if Disney didn't buy them though.
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Darmik posted...

Hulk is interesting yeah. Universal had distribution rights because they made an agreement with Marvel Studios that they would have first dibs on any Hulk movie but Marvel could use Hulk in other movies.

I wonder if the long term goal for Marvel Studios was to reach similar deals for the Fox and Sony characters. It's such a weird and unique thing. Of course Hulk 2003 flopped so maybe Universal didn't really care and wouldn't have bothered with an Incredible Hulk sequel. I think it's more likely it would have happened if Disney didn't buy them though.

Well, as I recall, Universal was involved in the 2008 film, right? It didn't do so hot. And while Universal could definitely continue to let Marvel use him which might have lead to us finally getting a Hulk vs. Leader film (that I really fuckin' want), I just don't see that having happened in phase 2. Or Universal would have pulled what Sony and Disney are doing now. "Ha, you used the rights to our character. More money please!"
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Yeah going by the results of Incredible Hulk there wasn't enough to make a sequel but Avengers might have changed their mind.

Lunar_Savage posted...

Or Universal would have pulled what Sony and Disney are doing now. "Ha, you used the rights to our character. More money please!"

They wouldn't have been able to.

When Marvel Studios pitch a new Hulk movie Universal gets first call. Even now with Disney ownership this is the case. But if Universal says no Marvel is allowed to go elsewhere.
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Darmik posted...

Yeah going by the results of Incredible Hulk there wasn't enough to make a sequel but Avengers might have changed their mind.

Lunar_Savage posted...

Or Universal would have pulled what Sony and Disney are doing now. "Ha, you used the rights to our character. More money please!"

They wouldn't have been able to.

When Marvel Studios pitch a new Hulk movie Universal gets first call. Even now with Disney ownership this is the case. But if Universal says no Marvel is allowed to go elsewhere.

Well, presuming that Marvel had bigger plans for the Hulk as Disney seems to have bigger plans for Spider-Man, it might have lead to an argument.

If it is specifically in the contract about the yes and no stuff...lawsuits, public relations, and the potential for money crushing status could have changed all that. In fact, didn't Ruffalo recently go on public record stating that the reason for no new solo Hulk was that Universal and Disney weren't getting along?
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Yeah and he isn't wrong. Universal would absolutely bring out the lawyers if Disney went ahead with a Hulk movie because they have first dibs on distribution.

Likewise Disney isn't going to risk Universal getting distribution rights over a Marvel movie.

So that means no solo Hulk movie.
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Darmik posted...

Yeah and he isn't wrong. Universal would absolutely bring out the lawyers if Disney went ahead with a Hulk movie because they have first dibs on distribution.

Likewise Disney isn't going to risk Universal getting distribution rights over a Marvel movie.

So that means no solo Hulk movie.

Lol, damn rich assholes ruining our fun. xD
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Kevin Feige is responsible for most of the success. It would have done the same. He started the MCU plan along with others at Marvel. Disney didn't inherently do too much to Marvel or Feige.

Outside X-Men and F4, all the movie rights returned on their own.

Lunar_Savage posted...

Well, presuming that Marvel had bigger plans for the Hulk as Disney seems to have bigger plans for Spider-Man, it might have lead to an argument.

If it is specifically in the contract about the yes and no stuff...lawsuits, public relations, and the potential for money crushing status could have changed all that. In fact, didn't Ruffalo recently go on public record stating that the reason for no new solo Hulk was that Universal and Disney weren't getting along?

Of course they're not gonna play nice at all with Universal anymore. Comcast owns them, and they were responsible for fucking over Disney on the Fox deal and paying billions way more than they had too. If they didn't have to, that money could have theoretically been easily used to just buy back Spider-Man from Sony.
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