That Darn Marvel Contract – What Rights Does Universal and Disney Own

[Scott W.]

No. There was a question as to whether or not his ties to Thanos and his brief Avengers comic appearances would be something to cut him out since he wasn’t in early promo stuff but that wasn’t the case.

The invisible jokes wrote themselves if it happened.

I had assumed that Mantis wasn’t in Cosmic Rewind because it was set between GOTG 1 and2.

 

[SeventyOne]

So, to bring discussion back to Black Panther (and technically, Iron Man) albeit.

With Marvel Studios having Black Panther 2 introduce a new Black Panther, alongside Ironheart; could both the new Black Panther and Ironheart be free from the Marvel contract? Riri is a relatively new character that falls out of the timeframe from when MSHI was under development, and assuming the new Black Panther is either M'Baku or Shuri, that would justifiably put the person donning Black Panther out of the restrictions that T'challa has, right?

It's not T'Challa, it's "Black Panther" and his family/foes. Doesn't matter if your Rule 55 it or say it's someone else in the suit, a character known as Black Panther is off the table. Ironheart a tad trickier but the fact we never saw Iron Patriot return after his first appearance in Disney Springs implies the Mouse doesn't want to call Universal's bluff.

Remember, Disney can't just ask a magic 8-Ball. These questions potentially costs hundreds of thousands to answer if they go to arbitration, and may end up in a new interpretation of the rule that sets you back further. When you have 625 other IPs you can base a ride off of free and clear, why mess around with Marvel?

 

[Nick]

It's not T'Challa, it's "Black Panther" and his family/foes. Doesn't matter if your Rule 55 it or say it's someone else in the suit, a character known as Black Panther is off the table. Ironheart a tad trickier but the fact we never saw Iron Patriot return after his first appearance in Disney Springs implies the Mouse doesn't want to call Universal's bluff.

Remember, Disney can't just ask a magic 8-Ball. These questions potentially costs hundreds of thousands to answer if they go to arbitration, and may end up in a new interpretation of the rule that sets you back further. When you have 625 other IPs you can base a ride off of free and clear, why mess around with Marvel?

The reason for asking these questions (at least from my perspective) is simply to get clarification on where we stand with the characters we are currently dealing with within the Universe.

You say "when you have 625 other IPs, why use Marvel?" well Disney just opened a Marvel ride in WDW, so they clearly see it as worth it IF they can use the character and said character(s) are popular, such as the Guardians and I won't be surprised if years from now another property becomes extremely popular and has little to no hangups in them using the IP and they build another Marvel ride somewhere at WDW.

Sure they have plenty of other things to build a ride off of, but Marvel and the MCU is their most popular entity that they own. They'll always be interested in what they can legally build based on Marvel in WDW or else they would've never even explored GotG as an IP option for Cosmic Rewind.

 

[quinnmac000]

So, to bring discussion back to Black Panther (and technically, Iron Man) albeit.

With Marvel Studios having Black Panther 2 introduce a new Black Panther, alongside Ironheart; could both the new Black Panther and Ironheart be free from the Marvel contract? Riri is a relatively new character that falls out of the timeframe from when MSHI was under development, and assuming the new Black Panther is either M'Baku or Shuri, that would justifiably put the person donning Black Panther out of the restrictions that T'challa has, right?

So basing on how I see MSHI set up is not the timeframe....its how the comics family differ from the MCU. Because Kamala doesn't count because she falls under the avengers via the comics but GOTG works because Star Lord doesn't fall in the Avengers via the comics, nor does Gamora, Drax, Groot, or Rocket.Drax is part of the Destroyers Horde but those were just clones of him.

Ironheart fall under Young Avengers which has Spider-Man as a family member, She also is in the Underground which Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hulk, and Spider-Man are family members.

Even with Black Panther being dead, Shuri would fall under the family even with the new name. Per Prime Marvel Universe, she is the sister to black panther.

The only thing for me that doesn't make sense is how Disney was able to even get three weeks with Dr Strange in the park as he falls under the Defender family and he also falls as a reserve Avengers member.

 

[Nick]

The only thing for me that doesn't make sense is how Disney was able to even get three weeks with Dr Strange in the park as he falls under the Defender family and he also falls as a reserve Avengers member.

I think that was Disney just really testing their limits with someone who did little research on the subject as they included Daily Bugle theming at his M&G, too. I believe the Daily Bugle was removed after the first day.

My thought is Universal just didn't think it was worth it to cause a big fuss over it since it was a limited offering, but i'm sure behind the scenes they made it clear to Disney that they were not entitled to use him per contract, which is why we haven't seen him doing a M&G since 2016 (as promo for Doctor Strange). If they had the right to use him, he would've been back out there before all of the movies Strange has been in since Doctor Strange in 2016.

 

[Scott W.]

I think that was Disney just really testing their limits with someone who did little research on the subject as they included Daily Bugle theming at his M&G, too. I believe the Daily Bugle was removed after the first day.

My thought is Universal just didn't think it was worth it to cause a big fuss over it since it was a limited offering, but i'm sure behind the scenes they made it clear to Disney that they were not entitled to use him per contract, which is why we haven't seen him doing a M&G since 2016 (as promo for Doctor Strange). If they had the right to use him, he would've been back out there before all of the movies Strange has been in since Doctor Strange in 2016.

Dr Strange was the original idea for the retheme of Tower of Terror in DCA. I think around the same time, ToT at DHS was rumoured to be getting a retheme.

That could just be a coincidence.

 

[Brian G.]

The only thing for me that doesn't make sense is how Disney was able to even get three weeks with Dr Strange in the park as he falls under the Defender family and he also falls as a reserve Avengers member.

Dr. Strange was more his own thing. He just so happened to appear in Avengers comics.

 

[SeventyOne]

The only thing for me that doesn't make sense is how Disney was able to even get three weeks with Dr Strange in the park as he falls under the Defender family and he also falls as a reserve Avengers member.

AFAIK was never an active member of the Avengers line-up, only the original Defenders. In a real world sense, in that his picture was never in a little circle on the cover or splash page, not arguing in-story. But again, it would be gambling hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle that question definitively. A one-week meet & greet paid for by the film division? Let's chance it. Refurb an E-ticket with a chance we'll have to tear it all down again? Eh...

 

[Nick]

AFAIK was never an active member of the Avengers line-up, only the original Defenders. In a real world sense, in that his picture was never in a little circle on the cover or splash page, not arguing in-story. But again, it would be gambling hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle that question definitively. A one-week meet & greet paid for by the film division? Let's chance it. Refurb an E-ticket with a chance we'll have to tear it all down again? Eh...

I have to feel like it's not some sort of guessing game for Disney at this point. I have to think they know by now if they have the rights to use Strange in Orlando or not and just going by the fact that we've never seen him again after that three-week stint, it seems like it would be a resounding 'no'.

 

[Brian G.]

I have to feel like it's not some sort of guessing game for Disney at this point. I have to think they know by now if they have the rights to use Strange in Orlando or not and just going by the fact that we've never seen him again after that three-week stint, it seems like it would be a resounding 'no'.

Problem is it due to rights or budget cutz

 

[Nick]

Problem is it due to rights or budget cutz

I'm not even talking about the rumor that ToT was going to be Strange-ified (which tbh, if the TZ theme has to go away, he's probably one of the best replacements for it among the things they own. If they can use him.)

I'm talking about simply character M&G's. He lasted only three weeks, paid for by the studio, and if he was truly someone they could use all the time, then I just don't understand why we never saw him come back after that short appearance in 2016. I know most M&G's went away post-covid and we're still in a period of them slowly cycling things back into full operation, but they still had from 2017 to early 2020 to use him in the parks if they have the rights.

Infinity War and Endgame came out during that time so I just feel like he would've at least been out more if he was allowed to be, especially since the Guardians were consistently meeting in DHS up until COVID shut things down and they even had that summer show at Epcot for a few years (again, up until Covid). So the lack of using a popular character like Strange when they were using GotG so much is odd if they indeed have the rights.

 

[Brian G.]

I'm not even talking about the rumor that ToT was going to be Strange-ified (which tbh, if the TZ theme has to go away, he's probably one of the best replacements for it among the things they own. If they can use him.)

I'm talking about simply character M&G's. His last three weeks, paid for by the studio, and if he was truly someone they could use all the time, then I just don't understand why we never saw him come back after that short appearance in 2016. I know most M&G's went away post-covid and we're still in a period of them slowly cycling things back into full operation, but they still had from 2017 to early 2020 to use him in the parks if they have the rights.

Infinity War and Endgame came out during that time so I just feel like he would've at least been out more if he was allowed to be, especially since the Guardians were consistently meeting in DHS up until COVID shut things down and they even had that summer show at Epcot for a few years (again, up until Covid). So the lack of using a popular character like Strange when they were using GotG so much is odd if they indeed have the rights.

Right? They’ve cut a lot. Lol.

 

[Scott W.]

I'm not even talking about the rumor that ToT was going to be Strange-ified (which tbh, if the TZ theme has to go away, he's probably one of the best replacements for it among the things they own. If they can use him.)

I'm talking about simply character M&G's. He lasted only three weeks, paid for by the studio, and if he was truly someone they could use all the time, then I just don't understand why we never saw him come back after that short appearance in 2016. I know most M&G's went away post-covid and we're still in a period of them slowly cycling things back into full operation, but they still had from 2017 to early 2020 to use him in the parks if they have the rights.

Infinity War and Endgame came out during that time so I just feel like he would've at least been out more if he was allowed to be, especially since the Guardians were consistently meeting in DHS up until COVID shut things down and they even had that summer show at Epcot for a few years (again, up until Covid). So the lack of using a popular character like Strange when they were using GotG so much is odd if they indeed have the rights.

I don’t think Strange was that big of a draw for Infinity War and they wouldn’t use him for Endgame since he was dead.

But I think they found the limit of the character.