The story behind how and why so many of Marvel Comic’s movie rights are scattered is a sad one. During the 1990s the studio faced financial issues and sold off the movie rights to many of its best-known heroes. Spider-Man went to Sony, and others like the Fantastic Four and The X-Men are held by 20th Century Fox.
As of today, 20th Century Fox still holds the rights to these characters. But there might be some hope for Marvel Studios to regain the rights to the X-Men!
On an official note, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has said that it may be possible the rights will be regained, but it’s unlikely to happen. That isn’t stopping Stan Lee from having high hopes!
During an appearance at Wizard World Nashville. Stan Lee said he believed Marvel is currently in the process of regaining the rights to those characters.
Sooner or later, they’re going to get the rights back to all our characters, … They’re working on it, and they’re still making X-Men movies and stuff. Don’t worry about it. You’ll get more Marvel superheroes than you’ll have time to look at in the next few years.
Now keep in mind, there is some hope in what he says. At the very least both studios could deepen their ties and work together. We got to see this with the Deadpool film where Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s powers were changed in exchange to allow Ego the Living Planet to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2.
Marvel Studios is also working with Fox to develop their X-Men spin-off television show, Gifted.
In this current movie environment, partnerships between major studios are profitable. Just look at the Sony/Marvel Studios collaboration with Spider-Man: Homecoming.
There is one thing to keep in mind as we hope to see some progress for the X-Men and Fantastic Four joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan Lee hasn’t been at the helm of Marvel’s daily operations for quite some time. It’s been decades. Though I could imagine it would be hard to say no to the Godfather of Marvel.
Would you like to see the X-Men join the MCU? Let us know in the comments below!