TV Rights and the X-Men

[Anduinel]

Since the question comes up in discussion now and then, figured I'd pass this along.

At the ECCC Marvel Animated panel, Vp of animation, Cort Lane, confirmed that the rights to do an animated X-Men series are owned by Fox.

So yeah, no loopholes there. Fox currently owns all movie and TV rights for the X-Men and a share of the merchandising rights. It really doesn't look like there's much Disney/Marvel can actually do with the franchise outside of the comics and possibly video games.

[Bafflement]

Doesn't address any of the questions people have raised, such as why Marvel would decide to give Fox the animation rights now and what they got in return.

[Beezzi]

Yeah, none of this has been confirmed and it seems that the X-Men were still appearing in Marvel animated shows as late as last year from what other posters are saying on the Complex thread.

This whole thing is a tad bit fishy.

-If Fox owns the animation rights - When did they aquire those? They weren't part of the original deal. Neither Evo nor WatXM was made by Fox. Those are credited to Marvel Studios/Entertainment.
-If Disney let Fox have the rights this year - What massive thing did Disney get in return - it's not like they needed the money. The IP is way more valuable to them.

(Btw this article states that only Wolverine has appeared Marvel shows, which is totally incorrect - loads of the X-Men (Cyke, Jean. Storm,Kitty, etc..) appeared in episodes of the Super Hero Squad show...that's a pretty massive factual error which tells me this journalist hasn't done their homework at all (it's internet copy/paste journalism at its laziest) Also where did this journalist obtain this wonderful piece of information? When did DisMarvel decide to "sneak" Wolvie past Fox...and if Fox did own the rights...they'd sue DisMarvel in a heartbeat for using their most profitable character without permission - no matter what he was wearing... ;-) )

[Username taken]

Since the question comes up in discussion now and then, figured I'd pass this along.

At the ECCC Marvel Animated panel, Vp of animation, Cort Lane, confirmed that the rights to do an animated X-Men series are owned by Fox.

So yeah, no loopholes there. Fox currently owns all movie and TV rights for the X-Men and a share of the merchandising rights. It really doesn't look like there's much Disney/Marvel can actually do with the franchise outside of the comics and possibly video games.

This is very important and actually explains a lot of why the X-men aren't very visible.

[MarvelMaster616]

This is a strange development. When exactly did Fox gain the animation rights? How can they have those rights when Wolverine keeps appearing in Ultimate Spider-Man? He's still a mutant. He's still considered an X-man. It shouldn't matter whether or not he's mentioned as being part of the team.

Also, X-men Evolution and Wolverine and the X-men were not attributed to Fox. X-men Evolution aired on WB and Cartoon Network, neither of which are Fox affiliated companies. I think those are Time Warner and Viacom respectively. And Wolverine and the X-men wasn't that long ago. It aired back in 2009. How did those rights change? What happened in between?

I know that Fox owns the movie and live action rights. But that never applied to animation. I don't think it even applied to motion comics. So when did this change? When was it even announced? I can't find any news articles from Marvel or Fox mentioning this.

[Purplevit]

And Deadpool appeared in Ultimate Spider-man

[autbey]

I know that Fox owns the movie and live action rights. But that never applied to animation. I don't think it even applied to motion comics. So when did this change? When was it even announced? I can't find any news articles from Marvel or Fox mentioning this.

Fox owns animated film rights, but Marvel still could do an animated series which is proven with aces's post. Disney doesn't want anything to do with the X-Men though, they prefer them to just go away.

[All-New Valar Stercus NOW.1]

If by "confirmed" you mean "blatantly lie" then sure...

[Beezzi]

Also, what does Wolverine's solo outfit look like? He has a different uniform for when he's not with the X-Men?

I never knew that....How is that different from his X-Men one? No Xs on the belt buckle? It's a lighter shade of yellow? You learn something new everyday....

I wonder if Wolvie has loads of different versions of his uniform...Maybe a sparkly one for nights out on the town? A cotton one for hot summers?

[AcesX1X]

Pulled this from the other thread. These are all the non-FOX x-men animated appearances we've been able to collect.

so if fox does own the animation, when did that happen and what were the circumstances? how did it happen? and are marvel breaking the law by putting x-men in their cartoons?

so we have the following (at least):

1. wolverine and the x-men with FOX completely unaccredited.
2. wolverine starring in marvel super-hero squad.
3. wolverine showing up in ultimate spider-man.
4. deadpool showing up in ultimate spider-man.
5. mutants are mentioned in ultimate spider-man.
6. sauron showing up in hulk smash.
7. jean grey showing up in the teen iron man show.

8. (?) and then, there was also the motion-capture animation cartoon of joss whedon's astonishing x-men.

have i missed anything?

8. Star-Lord explicitly mentioned the X-Men as some of Earth's greatest heroes in Ultimate Spider-Man
9. Wolverine was in Avengers: EMH
10. Wolverine & the X-Men is canon to Avengers: EMH
11. Weapon X showed up in Season 2 of Avengers: EMH (Vision obtained adamantium from them)
12. Magneto was in Iron Man: Armored Adventures (same episode that Jean was in)
13. Xavier was in Iron Man: Armored Adventures (again, same episode as Jean & Magneto)

Also Jean and Storm showed up in couple of episodes of the super-hero squad.

[cc008]

Too bad FOX doesn't do Saturday morning cartoons anymore (They don't right? Kind of assuming here.).

[AcesX1X]

Too bad FOX doesn't do Saturday morning cartoons anymore (They don't right? Kind of assuming here.).

fox typically license their animation to other studios to produce content.

[RLAAMJR.]

Pulled this from the other thread. These are all the non-FOX x-men animated appearances we've been able to collect.

so if fox does own the animation, when did that happen and what were the circumstances? how did it happen? and are marvel breaking the law by putting x-men in their cartoons?

Storm , Wolverine,Nightcrawler and Cyclops in Black Panther cartoons series.

[remydat]

http://www.leagle.com/decision/2001156155FSupp2d1_1156

The above is the most comprehensive discussion of the 1993 agreement. Fox owns the movie rights for both live action and animated movies and has to approve any live action TV series. Marvel owns the animated TV rights.

That's not to say that as with the legal dispute above, if Marvel launched an animated series that Fox for whatever reason thought infringed on their movie rights that Fox wouldn't take them to court so it's possible what Lane is talking about is it's complicated if they don't get official clearance from Fox on anything X-men related.

If you read the above, a lot of the back and forth in the case (Mutant X live program) was Fox and Marvel not just referencing the 1993 agreement but various drafts of that agreement to argue intent. It also makes clear that at one point Fox did have the animation rights and those rights reverted to Marvel but that's not to say that if Fox really wanted those rights they couldn't produce some old draft of the 1993 agreement and argue the intent was for them to retain those rights and that somehow it got left out of the final agreement. In the world of high priced corporate law, the Final Agreement is not the end all be all.

[BlackKnightExcalibre]

4063272-9446304697-uSenH.jpg

Japan has been using Wolverine, Deadpool, Beast, Cyclops, Sabretooth, Storm, Iceman, and Surge with no problems strangely enough
The show is still running and Wolverine/Surge episode and a Deadpool episode happened less than a year ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_...Avengers#X-Men