How Marvel Comics Became the Marvel Cinematic Universe

CBR

VIDEO: How Marvel Comics Became the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Liam Nolan

Published Feb 21, 2019

In a new exclusive video, CBR looks at how the Marvel Cinematic Universe came to be.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently the highest-grossing film franchise of all time, having pulled in over $17 billion across twenty films. Considering that there are plans for sequels to Black Panther, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, there's no indication that Marvel Studios is planning to stop any time soon. However, there was a time that the idea of making a cinematic universe out of the comics seemed impossible. Heck, Marvel even sold the film rights to some of its most prestigious characters following one of its bankruptcies.

The road to creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first Iron Man movie in 2008 was long, and started when comics legend Stan Lee started attempting to get films based off many of his most popular characters created. There were a lot of failures in the early days, and a ton of movies either didn't release or released to critical mockery. One of the earliest attempts was a Spider-Man movie with Cannon Films, which acquired the rights to the character. Constantin Film also acquired the rights to Fantastic Four. However, those films came to naught, and their failures are actually pretty famous in their own right.

We're going all the way back to Timely Comics for this video, so check it out below and find out how Marvel Comics became the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The MCU is certainly going to be a different place if everything goes right with Disney's acquisition of key assets from 21st Century Fox, which includes the Fantastic Four, X-Men and related characters. Bringing them back in will certainly change how Marvel Studios approaches Phase Four and beyond. Although there's a chance that we might not see some heroes such as Captain America or Iron Man following Avengers: Endgame, there's no indication that the MCU is going anywhere any time soon.

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