Disney's Plans for Marvel's Characters

As you know Disney and Marvel have combined forces, the deal is on the verge of being sealed, and there is still a lot of discussion going on about what exactly Disney plans on doing with all of the Marvel characters that they have acquired.

We know that Disney is not going to touch the films that are currently in production like Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. They also can’t touch the other Marvel Properties that are currently owned by other studios, like Spider-Man and X-Men.

What exactly does Disney have planned for the Marvel properties that they do own? Disney CEO Bob Iger recent addressed that question, and now we have a better idea of what they are going to do with them.

Disney currently has about 5,000 Marvel characters at their disposal. Since Marvel’s big properties currently aren’t available to them, they are going to put a focus on the lesser known Marvel characters right now. They spent a good $4.2 billion dollars on these characters, you know they are going to use them! Disney has to find a way to start making money from these characters.

There are a ton of Marvel characters that many people don't know about yet, and that’s where Disney will strike first, bringing out old characters that have been lost and forgotten. The biggest challenge is going to be getting people excited about these second-class superheroes. Personally I think the smartest move they make would be getting a Dr. Strange movie into production. That’s the Marvel film I’ve been waiting to see! They’ve also got characters like Black Panther, Moon Knight, Ant Man, Albino, Iron Fist and a ton of other characters, check out the full list Here.

It doesn't sound like Disney is going to start off making big budget movies though. According to CEO Bob Iger they may end up developing these Marvel characters on TV first. Its boy-focused cable channel, Disney XD, already airs 25 hours of Marvel cartoons every week. So there is a huge chance we will see some of these characters brought to life in the form of animated and live action TV series. One thing they know how to do well is market the hell out of its TV personalities. If they can turn Miley Cyrus into what she is today, they should have a problem building an audience for a character like Fire Arm.

Here is what Iger recently said in a statement:

Instead of making a $200 million movie and kind of betting the farm on one character, you can develop a television pilot, a television series.

Disney will definitely benefit the most from the new characters that Disney and Marvel develop together because the company would own the franchises outright instead of simply receiving licensing fees from the movies that Sony Corp. and News Corp.'s Fox produce on their own. Those deals last until Sony and Fox stop making the movies.

So I guess we shouldn’t be looking into seeing any big screen Marvel movies from Disney any time soon. It sounds like they are going to test the waters play around with some characters and see what audiences connect with. In the mean time we’ve still got a great line-up of Marvel films to look forward to, and I’m looking forwards to seeing what Marvel characters Disney will pull out and dust off. I can only hope Dr. Strange is their first big budget film. I'd also love to see Disney's Gargoyles placed in the Marvel Universe so they can interact with some of these characters.

What obscure Marvel characters would you like to see Disney bring to life?