Yesterday saw a wave of Marvel news come forth, but the two biggest pieces of the intel were that the comic studio was partnering up with Fox and FX for "Hellfire" and "Legion," respectively. The news of the TV shows was particularly intriguing given recent chatter of a potential X-men series, and now a new rumor posits what may be at the center of all this activity at Fox Television and its various divisions.
Den Of Geek is reporting that as part of the negotiations between Marvel and Fox for the new TV show, the comic studio gave Fox the TV rights for those aforementioned shows, in exchange for Fantastic Four (and possibly an "X-Men" TV series). That’s not all. Apparently, the plan is for a rebooted "Fantastic Four" movie to fill one of Marvel’s vacant release date slots in 2020. Evidently the deal also includes the rights to villains Galactus and Doctor Doom, as well as the Silver Surfer, which if true, probably means rights to the entire Fantastic Four universe.
There was a time when the likelihood of a studio giving up a major, branded comic book character would’ve seemed outrageous, but the landscape has changed in that regard. We’ve already seen Sony partner with Marvel after floundering with "The Amazing Spider-Man" to reboot the character, and so a similar scenario brokered between Fox and Marvel is not entirely out of the question. Certainly, the studio has remained mum on what they planned to do with the property after it tanked hard, and Mark Millar recently noted about a sequel, "…everything’s open to discussion. No decision has been made on anything yet like that."
Technically, "Fantastic Four 2" is still on the schedule for 2017, but the prospects of that actually happening seem dimmer by the day. Again, this is all a rumor but the mechanics of it have a certain logic, and certainly, fanboys would love "Fantastic Four" to return to Marvel, who can’t seem to make a wrong step these days. Thoughts? Hit up the comments section.
Update: Comic Book and Heroic Hollywood says that according to their sources, Fantastic Four still remains at Fox.