The fate of Marvel’s ‘Inhumans’ movie has been questionable for some time now. The movie was announced as part of the studio’s Phase 3 but has been pushed back a few times. Then last year, Marvel Studios, headed by president Kevin Feige broke away from Marvel Entertainment, presided over by Isaac Perlmutter. There had long been tensions simmering between the two, largely over money but also content.
Kevin Feige Photo credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.comMarvel Entertainment produces the TV series ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ which Feige reportedly was never happy about. The show saw the resurrection of Agent Phil Coulson played by Clark Gregg, a character who died in ‘The Avengers’. The show has also taken great pains to introduce the concept of the Inhumans, mutated humans that were used in the comics to essentially replace mutants, because neither division controls the ‘X-Men’ characters, whose movie rights are held by 20th Century Fox. The original plan was that after being established on ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, the Royal Family of ‘Inhumans’ would star in a film. (Vin Diesel made no secret of his desire to play leader Black Bolt.) But that now seems less likely.
Considering that Feige was reportedly never a fan of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’, it’s not surprising that its content is largely ignored in the movies. For instance, Phil Coulson has not been seen or mentioned again in the movies, since his death. And while the show does reflect events in the movies– for instance the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’— this doesn’t appear to be a two-way street.
In fact, it looks as if ‘Inhumans’ has once again been bumped with no definite release date announced.
Regarding this, Feige expressed:
“Since we made our initial phase three announcement, we added Spider-Man, which was a big joyous coup for us. We added Ant-Man and the Wasp, which was a big fun continuation of that story for us. Walt Disney Company has announced an Indiana Jones film for right around that same time. So I think it will shuffle off the current date that it’s on right now. How far down it shuffles, I’m not sure yet.”
Asked whether the film had been completely abandoned, he replied:
“No, It’s a question of when.”
True, after the under-performance of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, Sony chose to partner with Marvel on upcoming Spider-Man movies, as evidenced with the character’s upcoming cameo in ‘Captain America: Civil War’. ‘Ant-Man’ also slightly under-performed at the box office, but made enough money over time to warrant a sequel. And of course, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was a surprise smash that quickly earned a follow-up.
With Fox’s ‘X-Men’ franchise flourishing, especially after the runaway success of ‘Deadpool’, the film rights to those characters are likely to remain out of Marvel’s hands for the foreseeable future, so there could still be a place for ‘Inhumans’. It just doesn’t look like that’s happening anytime soon.
Are you disappointed that ‘Inhumans’ has been shelved for now?
Source: Comic Book Movie
Jason wonders why we can’t just all get along. You can follow him on Twitter.
