Could 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' Be the Key to the Future of the MCU?

Now you might be thinking; ‘how on earth could an animated film from 1988 have any relevance to the MCU – the biggest movie franchise on the planet’? Well hear me out for a minute.

On paper, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a movie that never gets made. Even in 1988 it was an incredible feat of cooperation and negotiation between studios, a feat many would argue wouldn’t have been possible with Stephen Spielberg at the helm.

According to reports following the film, “Spielberg was instrumental in the licensing negotiations, working closely with studios such as Warner Bros. Fleischer Studios, Felix the Cat Productions, Turner Entertainment, and Universal Pictures, Spielberg’s name and smooth negotiating convinced the separate studios to “lend” their characters to the production at an unbelievable flat rate of $5000 per character.

That was it. No backends, no residuals, just a one-time flat fee and some good will. And, a few additional stipulations on behalf of the studios for some of their major properties. For instance, Warner Bros. stipulated that their characters such as Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny must receive equal screen time, dialogue, and billing as Disney’s Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Spielberg’s feat was unparalleled in Hollywood business history”

What that means...

Okay, so the minute is up and I’ve still not quite got to the point but by now you might have guessed it. Current MCU + other studio properties in a one off “Roger Rabbit” style licensing deal = super awesome team up movie.

It’s ambitious.

The lawyers will hate it.

The marketing folk will love it.

And the fans will go nuts (as will the accountants).

It wouldn’t be easy to orchestrate but if there’s one person capable of pulling it off, it’s our lord and saviour Kevin Feige. He’s already shown a talent for property management and licensing negotiations in the handling of Spider-Man’s return to the MCU from Sony.

Why would a complicated arrangement like this be the best option?

To answer that, we first need to look at what we’re dealing with in terms of rights. The infographic below [by The Geek Twins] shows where the rights for each of the characters currently lie.

As you can see, it’s not quite straightforward. Realistically, a Roger Rabbit-style licensing arrangement might be the only viable option for seeing the heroes currently scattered at multiple studios all on the same screen. Fox is unlikely to let go of the X-MEN franchise with the recent critical and commercial success it has been enjoying. It has also recently set dates for Deadpool 2, X-Men: The New Mutants and X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Fantastic Four could go for a similar deal to Spider-Man but these deals are temporary and complicated at best (the Spider-Man deal is already causing ripples in the MCU regarding Peter Parker’s future in the MCU beyond Infinity War).

That leaves us looking at two possibilities; one is a Roger Rabbit style ‘one off’ licensing deal for each appearance by a non-Marvel Studios owned character and the other is bitter acceptance that our various costumed heroes will never share a screen together while there’s a buck to made independently.

Weighing It Up

Call me an optimist but done right, the Roger Rabbit model would be a great call for the studios. Obviously, there’s two sides to this but the positives would outweigh the negatives tenfold. The most obvious being that if you put your property in the latest Marvel Studios blockbuster, you’re getting the kind of marketing money can’t buy (if that was in any doubt, just look at the number of views the trailers for Spider-Man: Homecoming are getting following Spidey’s cameo in Captain America: Civil War).

Other positives would be the fan service of having all our heroes coming together and enabling story lines which otherwise would be impossible to tell, the ability to introduce/reintroduce characters without having to devote an entire standalone film to their origin story (again, see Spider-Man in Civil War).

The downsides would be relinquishing some creative control of their characters, possible dilution of their individual brand and the effect on their own continuity (not that Fox would have any issue there!).

So there you have it; the key to the future of the MCU and its loyal fans getting to see the best superhero team up ever is Roger Rabbit.

Current rights to Marvel characters