Get the MCU before 2008

All Rounder

Gone Fishin'
Would it be possible to get an alternate decision back in the late 90s to have Marvel make their own films than license certain characters to other studios for production. I will give examples of characters that could have a film made about them that could be used for the jumping off point for this early version of the MCU:

-Hulk
-Ghost Rider
-Captain America
-Spiderman
 

Archibald

Banned
Maybe have someone else than Ang Lee making that first Hulk movie in 2003 ? (although, against 99.999999% of mankind and film critics, I actually enjoy the first Hulk movie and could never watch the second one (Liv Tyler, how do you dared replacing Jennifer Connelly ?))
 

All Rounder

Gone Fishin'
Maybe have someone else than Ang Lee making that first Hulk movie in 2003 ? (although, against 99.999999% of mankind and film critics, I actually enjoy the first Hulk movie and could never watch the second one (Liv Tyler, how do you dared replacing Jennifer Connelly ?))

I am apart of that 99.999999% but good point, I read that the acting and script were praised but the CGI was panned.
 
Maybe have someone else than Ang Lee making that first Hulk movie in 2003 ? (although, against 99.999999% of mankind and film critics, I actually enjoy the first Hulk movie and could never watch the second one (Liv Tyler, how do you dared replacing Jennifer Connelly ?))
I actually feel it could have been a real good movie with a bit of work.
 
IIRC, Marvel went bankrupt in the mid or late 90s and its the major reason Spiderman wasnt developed until long after Superman and Batman had their runs in the 80s and 90s. I am pretty sure to get any of the Marvel characters on screen before OTL, all the corporate BS needs to be waved away.
 
There are two major reasons why Spider-Man wasn't made the early 2000s.

The first is the technological problem. It's hard to make a Spider-Man film that looks acceptable when CGI is still in the earliest of infancies.

Perhaps more importantly-the rights were a mess-and the project was held up by lawsuit for years over which studio could produce the film. That's why we have a Sam Raimi film and not a a James Cameron one.

On the topic I think we shouldn't underestimate how novel a concept the MCU is.

This isn't just about having characters share cinematic space-but having a vast amount of films planned in advance heading in a coherent direction. That requires organization and ambition that's unlikely to arise prior to 2008.

I think you could get a shared universe earlier if you somehow had Fox win the rights to Spider-Man rather than Columbia.

Had that happened there could have been little in jokes and cross references between the Spider-Man films and the X-Men films-and possibly even cross promotional cameos.

After all it's not hard to fit Spider-Man in the X-Men world depending on how you do it. If I remember correctly some of James Cameron's ideas leaned on a link between X-Men and Spider-Man.

But for a true MCU you need more than that. You need an organizational plan. Hard to see that happening prior to 2008.
 
Marvel happened when they did because of issues with the company - in fact, those troubles are partly why they DID create the MCU - it was a hail mary pass to save the company. And it WORKED.

Far easier to get a DC version up and running in this time frame.
 
Still-bankrupt Marvel wouldn't have the cash - or be able to get the cash, before Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man - in the late 90s, so this would have to be done by another company. That would mean Fox (say) would need someone in a position of power who'd think it's a good idea for Spider-Man and the X-Men to hang out. The cartoons had been crossing over in the mid-90s so that's possible.

Marvel's flush with cash and aggressively expanding in the early 90s, and by going public it's under pressure to make constantly more cash, so you could have the MCU start then. Marvel starts doing mid-budget films based on the properties it hasn't sold off to New Line yet. That'd be a huge boon to Marvel when the market crashes as a successful film would give them life-saving cash. The extra fun of this is that it means Hot 90s properties (and properties Marvel assumes will be hot) will be getting the films. Hi, Cable!
 
I don't think the MCU was really possible before it hit. The Christopher Reeves showed that superhero blockbusters was possible, Tim Burton showed they could be more than light hearted, X-men redeemed them, Spiderman showed that they could have bright colours, the failure of the minor movies (FF, Hulk, GR, Punisher) resulted in Marvel trying to do it themselves and they got pretty lucky with RD jr. while the Norton Hulk showed the problem with letting the film makers and actors have free reins. I pretty much think that Marvel hit the earliest point, where they could do what they did.
 
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