Marvel confirmed rights involving Hulk and Namor are still with Universal, meaning the Disney-owned characters will probably never get solo movies.
Both Namor and the Incredible Hulk are characters that Disney owns the right to use in stories, films or television. But while these two Marvel icons are the studio’s intellectual property, distribution deals with Universal Pictures for those characters’ films with Marvel Studios existed before the Mouse moved into the House of Ideas. Obviously, that makes their usage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe considerably more complicated to square away.
While the Hulk has existed in live-action since the late 1970s, Namor only recently made his debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Played by Tenoch Huerta, this interpretation is a massive hit with fans, both diehards and those unfamiliar with Namor. So, naturally, the question becomes: Will the man they call Kulk’ulk’an get a solo film? Well, unfortunately, probably not. Member of the Marvel Studios brain trust Nate Moore revealed Namor’s rights are, just like the Hulk’s, tied up with a pre-Disney distribution deal with Universal. But if Disney can partner with Sony for Spider-Man and buy 20th Century Fox outright for the Fantastic Four and the mutants, why can’t it and Universal get their acts together? The answer, it seems, dates back about 13 years to the start of the Disney and Marvel Studios relationship.
RELATED:Namor Was The Best New Villain Of The MCU Phase 4
Marvel Made Distribution Deals For Namor and the Hulk
Fans of Marvel Comics’ history know that the effort to get its characters on TV and into the movies was decades in the making and pioneered by Stan Lee. Thanks to the late co-creator of the Marvel Universe, cartoons and live-action series that featured Hulk, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange hit TV. The Hulk franchise even introduced the “shared universe” concept, with Thor and Daredevil showing up on those shows. Yet, over time, the rights to characters came back to Marvel from studios like New Line and Paramount. Like Thanos, Marvel did it itself by starting a film production company. The scrappy little movie company led by Kevin Feige could make movies, but it had no way to get them into theaters.
Those who own physical media copies of those early Marvel films will know both Paramount and Universal distributed those films. Universal landed the film rights to Hulk and Namor in the early 2000s. After Ang Lee’s regrettable Hulk film in 2003, Universal agreed to let Marvel Studios make the next picture, distributing The Incredible Hulk. When the Mouse bought Marvel, Disney and Universal went to war in the courts in order to free up not just film distribution rights but Marvel characters appearing in Universal’s Orlando theme park. And since Universal appears to have just recently lost that fight, it’s not inclined to work with Disney on rights to these characters.
RELATED:Marvel Has One Path To Regain Full Hulk, Namor Rights, Analyst Believes
Can Disney Ever Work With Universal Like It Has With Sony?
So, any Hulk or Namor solo film would become the property of Universal. What’s also unclear is if the distribution deal also extends to TV. If it does, that means that NBC or Peacock would have first right of refusal for a TV series with either character in the lead role. While few details are on-the-record, the relationship between Universal and Disney is frosty at best. To say Marvel Studios is unlikely to work with Universal to distribute a solo MCU film might be stating the obvious. Yet, the same would’ve been said about the Sony and Disney partnership before it happened. A consistently evolving entertainment industry landscape where Marvel is the biggest game in town means the only certainty is that one can never say never.
Still, Marvel Studios has plenty of options to get around this deal, some of which fans have already seen. The Hulk’s appearances in other films and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law continue his story and make him the connective tissue for a number of these discrete stories. Similarly, with Namor, Marvel could make a TV series focused on Talokan, where the character appears but is not the protagonist.
So, while Disney owns the rights to the characters Namor and the Hulk, Marvel’s pre-existing deal with Universal locks down the distribution rights, possibly in perpetuity. Yet, now that Bob Iger is back in charge of Disney, maybe he can complete his Marvel Comics collection and work out a new deal. At least that would give Namor the freedom Hulk never had.
