Chris Claremont is probably the definitive name when it comes to the X-Men as many of his arcs are still responsible for the mutants being how they are today. So when he says Marvel isn’t allowing for new mutants to be created, we should probably be listening.
Recently Claremont spoke at the Phoenix Comic Con with Len Wein, Marc Bernardin and Heath Corson where a little quote had pretty much been skimmed over until now. This is a pretty big quote and unofficially confirms a huge rumor we’ve been reporting on between the ongoing film rights over the X-Men franchise.
With the ‘Death of Wolverine,’ the upcoming cancellation of the ‘Fantastic Four‘, and the rumored Death of Deadpool, the friction between Marvel and Fox over the rights to the mutant population are seemingly becoming more and more apparent.
Talk about a downer. Let’s take a look at the direct quote:
“I have to say quite honestly as I understand it now the X department is forbidden to create new characters.
(SHOCK RESPONSE)
“Well… who owns them?
“All because all new characters become the film property of Fox.
“There will be no X-Men merchandising for the foreseeable future because, why promote Fox material?”
So while new mutants can’t be introduced in X-Men, apparently if they are introduced through a Marvel Now event we can see Marvel keep the rights to them. So don’t worry folks! It isn’t that we won’t see new mutants popping up anytime soon, it’s just that they won’t be introduced in an X-Men book. When Marvel’s own Cinematic Universe has taken off and they are limited on expanding to franchises that include Spider-Man over at Sony and both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four over at Fox, it makes sense why they aren’t too happy. I’m sure it doesn’t help that the “Guardians of the Galaxy’ and aliens portion of ‘The Avengers’ have proven so successful but now Marvel can’t tap a slew of cosmic characters due to the rights mentioned above.
Do you think Marvel is right to be playing hardball with their characters or is this just a situation where the fans end up losing out? Share your thoughts below true believers!
Source: Bleeding Cool
