Could Marvel Studios Have Used Fox Characters/Concepts in Their Animated Projects if Disney Never Bought Fox?

Assume that Disney never merges with Fox in the late 2010s. They either never sell or are bought by a different company. Whatever the reason is, Marvel is convinced they won’t be getting the film rights to Fox’s half of the MU anytime soon going into phase 4.

Couldn’t they have still technically utilized characters and concepts Fox had the film rights to (e.g. Annihilus, Negative Zone, Shi’ar empire, Silver Surfer, Gladiator, Galactus, Mephisto, etc.) in their animated projects like What If or Eyes of Wakanda?

What characters/concepts do you think they would’ve used? Do you think they would’ve even bothered exploiting this loophole?

Commentaires

eBICgamer20102025-11-17 16:51

[deleted]

ContentAssumption2042025-11-17 17:07

I’m referring to animated projects. Mutant and FF-adjacent characters had been used frequently in shows like USM, Avengers Assemble, and Agents of Smash throughout the early 2010s, Disney channel shows Fox had no control or involvement in. Why would this be any different?

As long as they didn’t resemble their Fox movie counterparts, (which would’ve been easy since they never used most of the characters I listed anyway) didn’t reference events that occurred in the Fox-men movies, and weren’t used in feature length animated movies they should’ve been good to use these characters.

eBICgamer20102025-11-17 17:10

[deleted]

ContentAssumption2042025-11-17 17:27

Mutant X was a live action project, not an animated one.

There isn’t really much Fox can do if a cartoon version of Logan played be Steve Blum appears in a What If episode alongside Cap or in Eyes of Wakanda or something. Legally it’s no different than Deadpool showing up in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. Fox had no control over the use of mutants and FF characters in animated series as long they’re not featured in animated movies.

PraiseRao2025-11-17 20:02

Marvel won over Mutant X though. The only thing too was the trademark was an X-men trademark and Marvel still won because it was a tv show not a movie.

PraiseRao2025-11-17 17:02

Their versions no. A version of them actually yes there would be no legal hurdle stopping them unless Ike really shit the bed in his deals with them. Movie and TV rights are not the same thing. What If? and Eyes of Wakanda are tv shows. Marvel would have been perfectly in their rights to use whatever they legally were allowed to use. IE Cyclops could show up but not dressed as the movie version.

Grootfan852025-11-17 17:32

Yeah, there’s a reason they all looked different in “Wolverine And the X-Men.”

Federal-Captain11182025-11-17 17:02

Considering they didn't even use any X-Men until season 3 of What If, Imma say no.

eagc72025-11-17 20:46

Technically they already had the rights to X-Men when they did What If, they simply made the decision to not include them and any character that hadn't appeared in the MCU proper yet in the earlier seasons

Legally speaking Marvel had the go to use X-Men and FF even before the merger as they were in Disney era animated series.

Grayx_28872025-11-17 19:22

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walkinmermaid2025-11-17 20:13

They could but they opted out because they didn’t want to promete characters that they couldn’t fully use. Imagine they create a really popular X-Men new cartoon so people will tune in to watch Fox’s new X-Men movie and rights now will take even long to revert back to
Marvel if the movie is successful.

eagc72025-11-17 20:44

If you mean animated movies no.

But in tv shows, they technically could, i mean we had X-Men and FF in Disney era animated series like Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes.

whyspezdumb2025-11-17 22:01

Possibly. One rumor I heard is that if Spider-Man didn't appear in Civil War and further, they wouldve done a Squirrel Girl movie. I also heard that Deadpool may have been the antagonist, and he was trying to fight a hostile-multiversal-takeover that would've tried to change who he is (Disney). Although, it would've been made by Fox, but part of MCU.

Marvel teaming with Fox pre-buyout just to spite Sony wouldve been interesting. But also, take this with a grain of salt, I don't remember where the fuck I read this.

Trvr_MKA2025-11-17 23:20

Squirrel Girl was supposed to debut in the New Warriors ABC Freeform show, they filmed a pilot which got good reviews but never got released.

This sounds like heresy

whyspezdumb2025-11-17 23:47

Maybe this was the dream idea, but they had to go to ABC? It could also be a load of BS, I know.

I am glad it never got picked up on ABC. Marvels treatment of AoS, Runaways, and Cloak & Dagger have been terrible.

Feels like Feige is doing the, "shit on everything that the last guy was in charge of" thing with ABC while also stating "Everything Marvel live-action is canon as multiverse", yet no Coulson and Quake for Secret Wars.

Edit: also I think Squirrel Girl was set for Secret Warriors before Winter Soldier came out, which also would've made her a Hydra Agent.... Cool?

ABC New Warriors would be hilarious. Speedball would accidentally hurt his gf or something, and be like, "I'm a monster, call me Penance now," and he gets a tiny scar. He can't be responsible for such a horrific accident on ABC.

r01-85062025-11-17 23:36

> *[ Removed by moderator ]*

Perhaps try this at:

* r/MCUTheories
* r/MarvelTheories
* r/Superheroes