Marvel Studios has been on the top ever since Disney bought them and turned them into the biggest brand in Hollywood. What the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done in Hollywood is just commendable as they have released 17 movies within 10 years and made a reputation giving us new content every year, with different Superheroes coming in. We are just on the verge of seeing Black Panther’s first ever solo movie and the critics and the fans have all acclaimed that it is one of the best Marvel movies ever made.
As we all know, this success has not always been with Marvel. Marvel was not even in the league and was struggling to get its properties out in Hollywood. In the 90s, Marvel Studios went bankrupt and were selling all the rights to their characters to different studios. 20th Century Fox as we all know got X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Ghost Rider, Sony had Spider-Man and Universal got Hulk.
This was the time when Marvel movies used to go straight to Home video and did not even get theatrical releases. Captain America, The Punisher, Howard the Duck all got movies that no one would ever want to even look at after seeing the quality of movies marvel has been currently making.
Now, after years of waiting, we are finally getting a solo Black Panther movie. Marvel had the intentions to go forward with it in Phase 1 and 2, but it has finally happened in Phase 3 after marvel introduced us to the character in Captain America Civil War. And in just 2 days, we will be able to see the movie which has been directed by Ryan Coogler (Creed) and starring Chadwick Boseman as the eponymous superhero. BP is going to be one of MCU’s Top 5 movies if not the best movie as it currently holds a 97% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is being tracked to make $170 Million within the first weekend itself.
The movie will have a big impact on the rest of the MCU as many elements of it will be featured in Avengers: Infinity War and the coming future movies of the MCU. Well, if it is such a big deal, and will have game changing events, a lot of people have been wondering that why did marvel have to wait so long to make this movie. While the answer to this has multiple aspects, but a simpler version of it is that Marvel didn’t always have the rights to the character.
Yes, Black Panther was yet another character that Marvel did not own. One of the characters that was sold early on along with the others was The King of Wakanda. Columbia Pictures was the one who originally acquired the rights to Black Panther from Marvel along with the rights to Ghost Rider and Spider-Man in the early 90s. The Studios were even looking to get a Black Panther movie out with Wesley Snipes eyed for the central role. Even Stan Lee himself supported the project and later that year, he helped move the film into pre-production within a matter of few months, but the film stayed in that stage for long and was ultimately scrapped.
Snipes went on to star in the Blade Trilogy. Black Panther was a character whose rights reverted back to Marvel later on as time passed, just like Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Artisan Entertainment acquired the rights to Black Panther in the year 2000 and tried to get their own adaptation for the movie off the ground but that also did not happen. Then later in 2005, Marvel changed their name to Marvel Entertainment and borrowed $525 million from a handful of creditors in order to get some of their movies out in the theatres. Then Black Panther finally came back home to Marvel along with many other characters like Iron Man, Thor Hulk, and Black Widow.
This was the time when Feige and Co got their minds behind the MCU and brought in Iron Man and other movies. Black Panther still had to wait for a decade as the creative minds behind the project did not agree to certain aspects which kept delaying the movie. Well now it is finally coming out and we are very thankful for it. Along with this, Marvel will have rights to all their characters as Disney will buy Fox within 12-16 months.
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