UPDATE: Fox has responded to the report that Fantastic Four’s rights are returning to Marvel – it’s “completely untrue.” Marvel has issued a denial as well.
Marvel has reportedly worked out a deal with FOX for the Fantastic Four movie rights, according to Den of Geeks. Marvel gave FOX the TV rights to the X-Men in exchange for the film rights to the Fantastic Four with plans for a 2020 film. Marvel currently has three untitled films slated for 2020.
ComicBook.com adds that the rights to Silver Surfer, Galactus and Dr. Doom were included in the deal.
There has been no official announcement by Marvel or FOX. At this time, I would consider this a hot rumor till a second source comes forward.
Marvel has been making deals to regain film rights to expand their cinematic universe. When Marvel was in financial trouble in the late 90s, the company sold the movie rights to their characters. Little did they know they would become a cinematic cash cow. Then Marvel was bought by Disney in 2009, purely for the vast amount of characters to make films from. The big three movie properties that Disney and Marvel would like back are Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the X-Men. They were able to work out a deal with Sony for Spider-Man. The X-Men will probably never return to Marvel because there are so many characters to pull from and the universe works on its own. The Fantastic Four franchise on the other hand, is film series in a hot-mess and Fox has been able to find the formula for a successful film. The door is open for Marvel to regain the rights to the Fantastic Four. Marvel sees an opportunity…
