A little while back we were discussing the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver; would they be considered X-Men or Avengers when it comes to the world of film. 20th Century Fox has the rights to the X-Men, and we were debating just exactly what characters that would include.

Here is the answer, from an interview with Kevin Fiege, President of Production for Marvel Films.

(Full interview at http://www.collider.com/2010/04/26/exclusive-interview-kevin-feige-the-president-of-production-at-marvel-talks-iron-man-2-thor-the-avengers-future-movies-the-marvel-movie-timeline-more/)

I definitely got a whole bunch of questions from people who follow me on Twitter, and one of the things that a lot of people ask me was can you clarify which mutants Marvel owns and which Fox/Sony/Universal might have or is not something that you want to talk about?

Feige: Well, Fox has mutants and Sony/Universal…Universal doesn’t have anything. Sony’s got Spidey and Ghostrider, and those family of characters. And Fox has X-Men and Fantastic Four and Daredevil and those family of characters. But any mutants in particular? Mutants are X-Men.

Is there a possibility for any of the X-mutants that are maybe lesser known to be in a Marvel movie or is it all encompassing like the Fox deal?

Feige: It’s pretty all encompassing. I mean they’re very specific character by character. Every character they have the rights to have is named specifically in contracts. And it’s a long, long, long list.

Is there a thing…

Feige: So Dazzler for instance would be Fox.

Oh.

Feige: Because she’s a mutant.




So I would guess then that Wanda and Pietro would be the domain of Fox, and not Marvel. It doesn't explain how new mutant characters would work, but for Avengers purposes it's pretty cut and dry I'd think.

The whole interview is actually a pretty good read, if you're interested in Marvel's movie adaptations.

~Hat~

Yeah, that kind of sucks, even though that's what I suspected. Still, I wish the interviewer had pressed a little further, or had thought the question out a bit more to the point where he had asked about some specific characters. What about Namor? Didn't Marvel say he was a mutant? But then, I suppose he pre-existed the X-men by a large degree, so maybe he's a special case. Really though, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are the most obvious ones to ask about... I would have liked to have seen them name-checked rather than "Dazzler" as the example.

With the announced "X-men: First Class" film being a prequel about Xavier setting up the school and his falling out with Magneto, I wouldn't be surprised to see Wanda and Pietro used in that one now. Sucks, though, since I'd much rather have seen them in an Avengers project.

I guess television deals are a completely different thing, since they do that "Superhero Squad" show with Wolverine and Avengers character and all of the Marvel universe thrown together. Apparently Fox doesn't control cartoon versions, so hopefully Wanda and Pietro will be on the upcoming Avengers series.