So, it's been pointed out, with the use of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in the "Ultron" movie, that the reason this was allowed is because they were both part of the Avengers team at some point, and Marvel has the rights to use any member of the team(paraphrasing my understanding of it). Also, it's been said that another studio owns the rights to the Hulk movies, but again, he's an Avenger, and thus able to be in those movies, but we won't get a Marvel Hulk movie. That being said, could Marvel simply use Spider-Man, Wolverine, and others in the Avengers movies?
1 Answer
As discussed in this article and this article, sort of, but not quite.
Since they are crossover members, they could technically use characters that go by that name, but "with certain restrictions".
Consider Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, who were originally introduced in the comics as Mutants, back in X-Men issue #4. They have specific backgrounds (e.g. they are the children of Magneto) and sources of their powers (born with them).
In the Fox-Movie universe, Quicksilver is a mutant, born with his powers, and there's even a quick nod in Days of Future Past to his possible parentage.
In the MCU, their parents are dead, and their father is presumably not Magneto, and their powers were given to them via experimentation. In fact, Scarlet Witch's powers aren't even her normal comic powers.
This all falls in line with the rumors that Marvel was allowed to use the characters as long as they made no mention of any "mutants", as all of those rights are held by Fox.
The same would go for any other characters left out of Marvel's ownership rights, unless they came to a specific agreement. Without permission from, or an agreement with Sony (thankfully, they worked one out!), Marvel would have to change Spider-Man dramatically - something they could probably get away with with characters like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, as they're lesser known by the average viewer, but not really the case with Spider-Man or Wolverine.
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1@MyCodeSucks Obviously none of us have seen the contracts, but everything we've read/heard indicates that Quicksilver & Scarlet were given an explicit special exemption inthe Fox deal, right from the start, probably because they were also Avengers. May 1, 2015 at 14:19
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1@MyCodeSucks right, but I'd bet my life savings that Fox was never going to agree to a deal where they got the X-Men, but didn't get exclusive rights to Wolverine. May 1, 2015 at 14:25
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1Wolverine is a fairly recent Avengers recruit. Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver were some of the original recruits. May 1, 2015 at 14:27
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1... and we should probably move this to chat if you have any further questions :) May 1, 2015 at 14:28