The Skrulls Could Appear In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
By Peter Sciretta/July 7, 2016 10:30 am EST
But those rights also include many of the characters from those comic books. The whole thing is very complex, and ownership usually is determined by which comic book series the character first appeared in. For many years we believed the Skrulls rights to be locked up by 20th Century Fox, but apparently Marvel still owns the rights to some of the Skrulls.
Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn recently appeared on the Pointless Podcast (via io9) and talked briefly about the legal ownership of some Marvel characters. In the interview, Gunn clarified a long-standing misconception: Marvel could use the Skulls in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — they just can’t use all of them:
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 published in January 1962. They have featured in many stories over the last half century, usually trying to invade Earth. They notably have been engaged in a prolonged war with the extraterrestrial Kree, who appeared as the main villains of Guardians of the Galaxy.
It’s obvious why the comics have often returned to the Skrulls over the years. They can change their appearance to resemble anything or anyone, which allows for some dramatic reveals. And now that we know they could be used in the MCU, you’d better be questioning the motives of every character on screen, because they could secretly be a Skrull in disguise. Or even the dramatic death of one of your favorite characters? Might just be a Skrull. It’s happened a lot of times in the comics, giving Marvel an out for some pretty incredible cliffhangers. Hopefully they aren’t employed in that way in the movies.
As for the ownership of the other Marvel characters, I present the over-simplified graphic created by The Geek Twins. Here is a way more extensive, but not complete, listing of character ownerships:
20th Century Fox
Sony Pictures
Marvel Studios
