Will Marvel Ever Regain the Film Distribution Rights to the Hulk Franchise?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Dec. 27, 2016, 5 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
The reason for which there has not yet been another Hulk film has nothing to do with the box office performance of 2008's Incredible Hulk film; it is because, while Marvel owns the film production rights for the Incredible Hulk franchise, Universal still owns the film distribution rights for it, and the two companies were not able to reach an agreement after Marvel was acquired by Disney.
I find this to be terribly tragic, since there is much unexplored territory with Bruce Banner and his internal struggle, as well as the fact that Blonsky/Abomination and Dr. Sterns are both still alive; also, the lack of future solo Hulk films means that there is little chance of characters such as She-Hulk, Red Hulk, or Red She-Hulk appearing in a high-budget feature film at any time in the near future.
Surely, Marvel, with all its power and influence, can negotiate a deal with Universal to produce and distribute future Incredible Hulk films? What does everyone else say about this? Will Marvel ever regain the film distribution rights to the Incredible Hulk franchise?
canterlotguardian says... #3
Maybe they can stop recasting the Hulk in every single movie he's shown in. We had Eric Bana, Edward Norton, and Mark Ruffalo, and those are just the modern Hulk adaptations. Not to mention going back to the old days of the Hulk, with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno.
December 28, 2016 1:49 p.m.
Mark Ruffalo has been the Hulk for 4 (nearly 5) years, over several movies. Prior to that it was because there simply was no continuity, so it didn't matter that they were played by different people. This is similar to how we now have 3 actors who've played Spiderman, and that's only the live action adaptations. Only recently has the idea of franchise-spanning continuity become reasonable enough to warrant contracting the same actor for the same role months to years in advance.
Granted, there is the fact that the most recent Hulk movie is technically part of the MCU but has Edward Norton - not Ruffalo - as Banner, but no one could have anticipated Norton to "jump ship."
So relax, canterlotguardian.
kanokarob says... #2
The thing is, Marvel doesn't have a whole lot of power or influence; that's why they had to sell off all of these rights to begin with. They have the greatest respect from their fanbase, but even still, rely on Disney to give them their allowance, so to speak.
So, it will fall to Disney to reacquire the rights to Hulk distribution - along with the many other rights Marvel sold off just to stay in business, if hemorrhaging - and since Universal and the like don't particularly like Disney, it's tragically unlikely, barring serious schmeckles, which it may be determined isn't worth paying out merely on the hopes of making it back, for the moment.
Hopefully this will happen some day, but it's unlikely for the near future. We can only hope that future Avengers movies (either ensemble or individual, such as Thor: Ragnorak) give us lots of Banner screentime, so we can see what all goes on in his life in preparation either for more of these "Hey I'm here too just not in the title" deals, or in the event Marvel can reclaim Hulk distribution powers.
December 27, 2016 10:40 p.m.