The MCU didn’t need Wolverine and Spider-Man to succeed

Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: ™ FAR FROM HOME
Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: ™ FAR FROM HOME /
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Marvel Studios made the MCU a resounding success without heavy-hitters like Spider-Man and Wolverine.

At this point, the calling the Marvel Cinematic Universe a success is both an obvious statement and an understatement. But before 2008 and the debut of Iron Man, the MCU wasn’t even a concept. And the success of that movie was anything but a sure thing. Once it came into focus, fans started wondering how any of this would work without the company’s top characters.

As it turned out, the MCU didn’t need either Wolverine or Spider-Man. The concept not only survived without them, it thrived. In fact, their absence from the MCU might have been integral to the franchise’s domination.

The MCU’s limited toybox

One of the aspects of the MCU that has been discussed time and time again is film rights. Marvel sold off film rights to many of their characters years before the MCU films began. A lot of them went to Fox, though some went to other companies like Paramount and Sony.

This put Marvel Studios in an interesting position when the MCU began. They only had a limited number of heroes and villains to work with, excluding some of their most popular characters and teams – both of which were with other film studios.

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What they did was build a film universe around other characters like Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye. They were some of their legacy characters, and key ones at that. They hadn’t been big sellers on comic book racks for years, though.

Marvel more than made up for that by crafting great stories and casting the characters almost perfectly. There was certainly some trial and error along the way, but it’s hard to argue with the quality of the product fans are getting these days.

Where are Wolverine and Spider-Man?

Without question, Wolverine and Spider-Man are the two biggest characters Marvel Comics has. They both headline multiple titles, and appear as part of a variety of teams. For fans, there was the constant question of when they would arrive in the MCU.

Sony had long held the the film rights to Spider-Man and all associated characters. They used these rights to make their own films over the past couple of decades, with mixed success following three different attempts at building a franchise.

The same problem existed for Wolverine. Fox owned the rights to the X-Men, including him, and produced a lot of movies in their own universe. While there were a few standout films, most were absolutely unwatchable duds.

This has changed since Disney bought Marvel. They bought much of Fox’s entertainment assets, which returned the film rights for dozens of characters to Marvel. And they’ve established a working relationship with Sony that allows Spider-Man to be part of the MCU.

Nice, but not needed

The how and when of Wolverine’s debut in the MCU has not been discussed, though it’s all but inevitable at this point. Spider-Man is in these movies, but that’s highly dependent on Sony and Disney maintaining the aforementioned relationship.

MCU, Wolverine
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – JULY 15: Actor Hugh Jackman attends during “The Wolverine” press conference at Hyatt Hotel on July 15, 2013 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) /

But the MCU has proven that it functions perfectly fine without either character. In fact, it has absolutely excelled without them. It wouldn’t be out of line to suggest that the MCU is the success it is because it didn’t have either character.

Spider-Man and Wolverine tend to steal focus. If they were part of the MCU from the beginning, the whole thing would have ended up being a Spider-Man/Wolverine Universe. Movies like Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel might not have been made.

The box office domination of the MCU can largely be attributed to the big swings they take on characters the general public doesn’t know. If Spider-Man and Wolverine were available on day one, the first movie wouldn’t have been Iron Man and the MCU would have been a lot different.

Without surprising hits like Guardians of the Galaxy, the MCU might have been rebooted by now, much like the Spider-Man has been a couple of times. It’ll be fun to see how Wolverine debuts and Spider-Man has been a welcome addition, but the MCU is still fun without them.

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Do you think Marvel Studios’ MCU would have been different if they had Spider-Man and Wolverine to begin with? Let us know in the comments below!