Marvel's Stale Hero Island: Big Changes Needed to Disney & Universal's Deal For Marvel in Orlando Theme Parks

Exclusive: Over a week ago, The Daily SuperHero took some needed downtime to unplug and what better place to go and escape reality than in Orlando. I stayed at a hotel on Universal property but also went to Walt Disney World, too.

During that week, I spoke to a lot of employees of the Mouse and at Universal. While most of these employees are not in charge of theme park decisions, many are still plugged into the inside world of these theme parks and they hear things, rumors and rumblings. I know the sources cannot be said to be legit sources of information on this topic, but they do hear stuff that those outside of the employment walls of these establishments don't hear.

So what did I hear and talk about with multiple parks sources? We talked about how Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure theme park has a Marvel-themed portion of the park even though Disney owns Marvel.

I've written before how Universal acquired the theme park rights for Marvel a very long time ago and well before Disney bought Marvel Entertainment. The deal is reportedly said to be in perpetuity and Disney cannot use any Marvel themes, characters or marketing imagery in any of their Orlando Area parks. This is to the point where one of the park sources told me that there's a section of the monorail which runs into Epcot Center and it can't have any Marvel branding or marketing on it otherwise it would be a breach of the licensing contract between Universal and Disney/Marvel.

One of the more interesting things that came from nearly every conversation I had with these park sources was a common theme... Universal and Disney might be talking about a new theme park deal. Reasoning behind this was implied that both studios see the Marvel section of Universal's Orlando park as becoming increasingly out-of-date.

Good! Because, in all honesty, the Marvel section looks like it is stuck in the late 1990s which is when it was first built and has no imagery or reference for any new Marvel film at all.

This is some conjecture by me based on these conversations I had and it appears negotiations for Marvel in theme parks in Orlando — remember this is an exclusive are deal only in Central Florida parks — might be coming very soon. Whether or not this means Disney will reacquire the theme parks rights for Marvel in Central Florida remains to be seen, but it definitely seems like both studios recognize the Marvel section is going stale. Perhaps Disney may help Universal 're-skin' the Marvel section of the park to another Universal licensed theme. Honestly, the section really needs it, too.

With Marvel Studios movies as popular as ever, having a section of a competitors' theme park with a pre-existing licensing deal for Marvel characters who are stuck in the late 90s is quickly becoming more and more stale is something Disney needs to fix. Fans would rather go to Walt Disney World and see Marvel heroes based on the new films in Disney's parks than going to Universal to see their 90s versions... at least I would.