DC/Marvel Crossover Not Out Of The Question According To Kevin Feige
Crossovers are popular in superhero universes. Fans love to see their favorite superheroes cross paths with another one of their favorite superheroes. It is a joy to see them talking and acting around each other, and combine their powers together. They make for a mega exciting storyline that fans look forward to. Crossovers do happen frequently among superheroes in their respective universes, but what if there was an epic crossover event between universes? For example, a Marvel and DC crossover.
In Marvel, you obviously have all the different superheroes from the comic books teaming up in various movies, even sometimes in their “own titled” movie such as Captain America: Civil War. The Avengers movie brings all the Marvel heroes together, linking and connecting all of them. Now the characters are acquainted with each other and are free to call on their allies. Ever since then, it is now a norm to have one film being centered around a main superhero, and then inevitably have bring in another superhero.
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Similar crossovers happen in the DC universe, though not as frequently as their Marvel counterpart. Thus, when DC decides to do a crossover between superheroes and villains, they make a big deal about it. For example, the DC shows on the CW will have one, two, or three episodes that make up a big storyline weaving through multiple series. The surrounding publicity and promotion are dialed up, hyping fans to tune in for the upcoming event. DC has released several crossover movies as well with Justice League, Suicide Squad, and Superman vs. Batman, to name a few. What would happen if the epic crossover event happened between Marvel and DC? Kevin Feige has told fans to not rule that idea out, and perhaps sometime in the future, we may find out.
Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, recently suggested that there could be a crossover between Marvel and DC. Obviously this is a surprise to many fans since there are a lot of questions as to how that might look. Marvel maybe slightly more successful in pumping out good quality films since the release of Iron Man in 2008. DC and Warner Brothers have had slightly less success in this area, but they do have some stellar films as well, including the newest release of James Gunn’s Suicide Squad on August 6th. Their success seem to lie primarily in television shows in the so called “DCTV.” A crossover event between the two comics giants, however, could change the way people view Marvel and DC in the superhero world.
A crossover (most likely a film) would be one for the ages, and certainly something that has never been done before. Many fans have wanted to see a connection between the two universes since both have amazing superheroes with killer stories. In order to do a crossover, however, a lot would have to happen, especially in the legal realm. After all, Marvel and DC are not owned by the same studio.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a huge moneymaker for Disney with how fast they pump out films (some more successful than others), and now series on Disney+. DC has started doing much more with the crossover of superheroes and events, straying a little more towards what Marvel has been doing, as well as adding more Elseworlds stories like Joker. In the past few years, DC has really built up their own cinematic universe.
The conversation about a crossover event between Marvel and DC was sparked by a comment by James Gunn wanting to see Harley Quinn and Groot interact with each other. Gunn is in a unique position, having directed both Marvel and DC movies. In an interview to ComicBook.com, Kevin Feige was asked about the possibility of a crossover between Marvel and DC. In his answer, he said quite a lot while of course revealing nothing, which, of course, Feige is notorious for.
"Well, look, my standard answer to things are 'never say never.' I never thought we'd get this far. James has not brought that up, James is deep in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, that will begin filming before the end of this year. Having finished the spectacular The Suicide Squad and selling that movie, he's well underway of prep on Guardians 3."
As mentioned before, the logistics of pulling off an epic crossover between Marvel and DC is a huge endeavor. Disney owns Marvel and Warner Bros. owns DC, which in and of itself is a lot of red tape to cross for both mega companies. It could even be the main reason why a crossover event has not happened yet. The amount of legal red tape to get through using another studio’s cinematic, drawn, or written property can be huge and very difficult to get through. Crossovers between the media conglomerates do not exist because of this.
One crossover that did, somehow, miraculously happen between companies was the use of quite a few different cartoon characters from several big name media companies in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg. By agreeing to several stipulations and splitting of profits, Spielberg was able to convince Warner Brothers, King Features Syndicate, Felix the Cat Productions, Turner Entertainment, Fleischer Studios, and Universal Pictures/Walter Lantz Productions to let them use their characters for only $5,000 per character which was a steal. Basically, they were able to get Donald Duck and Daffy Duck playing the piano together and Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse interacting with each other. It was huge. This was the only time to date that Disney and Warner Brothers have had their characters appearing in the same movie. It is also the only movie to date that had any studio crossover among characters.
This means if Disney and Warner Brothers could come to an agreement and create a crossover between their respective Marvel and DC superheroes, it would be one for the history books. So, while Kevin Feige did not say for sure that a crossover would happen, it is not ruled out completely as long as the logistics can be negotiated. Feige is clearly aware that fans would love to see such a crossover, but it is still years in the making if it were to happen.
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Source(s): Screen Rant, The Take, Hollywood Reporter