DEBUNKED: Marvel Wants the Silver Surfer and Galactus Rights From Fox in Exchange For More Daredevil Development Time
Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, Marvel was licensing out their properties like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Daredevil to other movie studios. There was a clause in those deals saying if a new movie isn't released in whatever time frame is stated in these deals (most are around seven years after the last movie is released and another needs to be released), then all rights are reverted back to Marvel.
Once Walt Disney bought Marvel, it was thought Disney would open their pockets to re-acquire all their Marvel properties back from other studios but they didn't.
However, per Variety, it seems Disney and Marvel are in a negotiating mood with 20th Century Fox. Fox owns the rights to all the X-Men properties including Wolverine and they also have the rights to Daredevil and the Fantastic Four too.
According to this report, Fox's development of their next attempt at a Daredevil movie will not hit the deadline that reverts the rights back to Marvel and Disney so instead of getting Hornhead back, Marvel is trying to work a deal that gets them two of the most popular cosmic characters back under their umbrella and into their cinematic universe. Marvel is willing to give Fox more time with Daredevil if Fox gives up the rights for both the Silver Surfer and Galactus.
***UPDATE 8/6/12 9:33 p.m. ET: Fox will not negotiate with Marvel and would rather let Daredevil's rights revert back to Marvel over giving up characters under their Fantastic Four film license. Read more by clicking here.***
Now that Marvel has introduced Thanos at the end of The Avengers and announced the development of the cosmic group Guardians of the Galaxy, it appears they want to further expand their ever-growing universe on the big screen. Plus, adding Silver Surfer gives Marvel Studios an opportunity to maybe follow The Thanos Imperative story arc a bit more closely—if they chose to write a script with this in mind.
Stay tuned as more information regarding this Marvel-Fox negotiation is sure to continue in the coming days/weeks but we have to ask ... why not go for Dr. Doom's rights instead? He is called The Avengers' greatest villain for a reason.
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