One of the biggest hurdles when it comes to adapting comic books for film and mixing and matching characters from different properties is obtaining the rights, as things can often get tricky. It’s sometimes hard to discern who owns who and studios are constantly trying to strike deals to use each other’s heroes and villains.
As you no doubt know by now, Marvel will be introducing us to Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and have even brought in Kurt Russell to play the character. However, at one point, James Gunn may have had to choose a different father for Star-Lord, as the rights to Ego actually belonged to Fox.
Luckily for Marvel though, they had a character that the studio needed. During a Deadpool Q&A this past weekend, writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese revealed that even though Fox owned the rights to Negasonic Teenage Warhead, in order to change her powers, they needed permission from Marvel Studios.
And so, when they came to Kevin Feige with their request, he used it as leverage to obtain the rights for Ego the Living Planet. Thankfully, the two parties were able to work out a deal and they each got what they were after, which is actually rather surprising.
Fox and Marvel have always had a bit of a strained relationship over the years, given that the former holds the rights to many characters who are important for the latter. Of course, the biggest point of contention is the X-Men, who fans would love to see in the MCU – something that likely won’t ever happen due to Fox controlling them. However, if the studios were able to work out a deal for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Deadpool, then perhaps their relationship is getting better?
A deal for the X-Men is still highly unlikely, but hearing that the two parties worked together recently is a promising sign for sure, and one that may mean we’ll be seeing even more characters being passed between them in the future. Plus, with Fox planning to reboot the mutant franchise very soon, who knows what may happen.
For now, we’ll just have to wait and see if they’re able to work together again, but in the meantime, tell us, which superheroes and villains would you like to see Fox hand over to Marvel, and vice versa?
