Marvel vs Capcom is a franchise that has long been adored by fans due to its 3v3 hectic and stylish combat. Dream teams composed of characters such as Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Psylocke would make it a hit inside the halls of arcades. When Marvel vs Capcom Infinite was announced several weeks ago fans of the series eagerly anticipated word on the return of their favorite characters. Unfortunately for those hoping to see their favorite X-Men, Disney has some bad news for you. Disney is blocking the X-Men from expanding.
For those unaware, Disney acquired Marvel for 4 billion dollars back in the year 2009 but it came with a few unforeseen circumstances. Although Disney gained every single property ever created by Marvel, certain film rights were not in the hands of the House of Mouse.
Several studios had already made deals with Disney for exclusive cinematic rights to certain properties. Fox for example owns the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters. Sony on the other hand owns the Spider-Man character and others that have shown up in his books. Thus we see how Sony can make a Venom movie.
The fragmentation has caused a huge headache for Disney and Marvel. Just recently the very mention of Venom being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe  caused for a subtle reaction from Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. Unfortunately for Marvel, several financial deals had to be made in order to get Spider-Man into their universe, that’s how we were treated to the web head in Captain America Civil War.
Other studios on the other hand don’t play ball. Fox has no desire to let Marvel retain the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Instead Fox has chased to build its own cinematic universe which somewhat failed due to the reception of the Fantastic Four reboot. While not as successful as Marvel’s ever expanding roster of characters such as Captain America, Iron Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Fox has carved its own success stories with films such as Logan and Deadpool. That success is an annoyance in Disney eyes which is where other mediums outside of the films come in.
Although Disney does not own the cinematic rights to the X-Men and the other noted properties, they do have absolute control to all Marvel properties when it comes to other mediums. According to a Nerdist Podcast interview with Marvel X-Men comic writer Chris Claremont “…the X department is forbidden to create new characters.” What it boils down to is that Marvel is hindering the X-Men franchise from expanding further beyond what is already established. Any new characters created in the comics will automatically allow Fox to use in their movies. Claremont continues on by saying “There will be no X-Men merchandising for the foreseeable future because, why promote Fox material?” The effects of this self mutilation hurts consumers of Marvel media. It’s for this reason why Marvel vs Capcom Infinite will not feature any X-Men. Disney has forbidden access to your favorite mutant.
It’s not all doom and gloom. It seems Marvel and Disney are still interested in making money off of the existing properties and have even green lit video games on properties they don’t own on film. Spider-Man is receiving his own game later on this year simply titled Marvel’s Spider-Man. Not only that but when the Deadpool film was released Marvel had no issue capitalizing on the popularity by relisting the Deadpool game by Activision. Money speaks and for that reason it wouldn’t be surprising to see X-Men be a part of some sort of DLC expansion for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite.  Of course that’s not going to change the MCU characters from receiving first class treatment.
While the world of Marvel may be in disarray now, hopefully one day it may come to work together as a whole in all forms of entertainment. After all, the X-Men did grow in popularity outside of the film industry at first.
