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With a Deadpool movie coming out, and Thanos appearing several times in the MCU; which studio's movie universe could show death?

I remember during the credits scene in the first Avengers movie there is a mention of "Courting Death". However, Death is also a big part of Deadpool's background/character development. Is there any legal documents mentioning who owns Death?

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    Good question. An entity known as Death has appeared in Agents Of SHIELD recently. It isn't currently known if it's the same one. – Rogue Jedi Nov 3 '15 at 18:42
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    @RogueJedi, was Death portrayed as a female? – Ryan Nov 3 '15 at 19:00
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    @ryan the Death shown so far is a shapeshifter, or can otherwise disguise itself. – phantom42 Nov 3 '15 at 19:16
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    I’m pretty sure whichever studio owns Bill & Ted has the rights to Death sewn up pretty tight. – Paul D. Waite Nov 3 '15 at 19:37
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    I think it would probably be the same situation as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch: each studio has a claim to them, so they each just use them in a way that won't raise a stink with the other studio. I don't have anything official though, so I won't put this as an answer. – Liesmith Nov 3 '15 at 20:37
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+100

It seems as if Death (the female cosmic being) belongs to the MCU.

I haven’t found a concrete statement, but there are hints in this direction. Given how careful lawyers can be, it’s unlikely these hints or references would slip through if Marvel didn’t have the rights to the character.

Two hints in this direction:

  • Josh Brolin, who plays Thanos, made a suggestion in an interview about Death that some have taken to mean Death will be played by a woman in the MCU:

    “[Thanos’s] relationship with Death, who is actually the woman, I love that. You can take Sin City [in which Brolin plays a man obsessed with a dark-hearted woman] and pump it full of steroids, and then you have Thanos. I like that he’s motivated by that — not just motivated by destruction or death or this or that. He’s motivated by a very identifiable, human trait.”

    This is based on a storyline from the comics, in which Thanos meets Death embodied in female form.

  • We see a mural depicting Death as one of the four Cosmic Entities who created the Infinity Stones. This appears both in the Temple on Morag, and among the holograms shown by the Collector (both in Guardians of the Galaxy).

    This image comes from GotG: The Art of the Movie:

    enter image description here

    Death is in the top-left hand corner, along with Entropy, Infinity and Eternity. The MCU Wiki page for Death, has more facts from The Art of the Movie. It feels like they‘re trying to allow for Death to appear in a future MCU franchise – which they can only do if they own the rights.

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Marvel's character, the female cosmic entity called Death has been around for quite some time and I suspect NO ONE can own the actual entity, though I suspect if she NEED appear, no one is going to be able to lay claim on her.

  • If I were to look at her modern appearances (after the Golden Age) her first appearance would have been in Captain Marvel #28 (1973).

  • This would imply She would belong to the Avengers line, since Captain Marvel was, at least provisionally, an Avenger.

enter image description here

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