Characters Marvel Still Doesn't Have Rights To

Despite having recently reacquired the movie rights to Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, the MCU still does not have the full screen rights to all of the characters in Marvel Comics. The Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't missed a beat with its incomplete roster, bringing in nearly $14 billion at the box office across 17 films over the last decade. With Infinity War on the horizon, as well as all the new characters that will soon be joining the shared universe thanks to Disney's deal with Fox, the future of Marvel's shared universe is looking bright.Things weren't always running so smoothly over at Marvel, of course. In the mid-'90s, the publisher was on the verge of bankruptcy, and selling off characters' exclusive movie rights to various studios proved to be a quick way to inch them out of the red. Most character rights have eventually reverted back to the House of Ideas, though some familiar faces remain outside the reach of Marvel Studios. For now, anyway.Related: 5 Awesome Villains The MCU Can Now Use Thanks To The Fox DealDisney's (not yet complete) deal with Fox means that the X-Men and the Fantastic Four will be joining the MCU sometime in the next few years. Assuming that deal goes through, Marvel will once again own those characters' full screen rights, adding to their library of over 7,000 characters. But although that acquisition was widely believed to be the last big domino to fall, Marvel still doesn't have complete control over its full comic roster. Here are the Characters Marvel Still Doesn't Have The Movie Rights To.

The Hulk

Easy, folks: we're well aware that Mark Ruffalo has played the Hulk on numerous occasions in the MCU. If you count the Bruce Banner cameo in Iron Man 3, Ruffalo has portrayed the character four times now, and his upcoming roles in Infinity War and Avengers 4 will make six. But as you may or may not know, because of a complicated distribution deal to Universal, Marvel can't really make another Hulk solo movie, thus landing the Jade Giant on our list.

There's always a chance that Disney can come to some sort of mutually beneficial distribution agreement with Universal, or that they manage to reacquire the full screen rights to the Hulk. According to Ruffalo, however, Universal hasn't been willing to play ball. So for the time being, it looks like Bruce Banner will be relegated to losing control and turning into an enormous green rage monster in team-up films only.

The Hulk's complex rights issues extend to many of his most notable adversaries and supporting characters, though there's one in particular that fans have been hoping to see in live-action for years...

She-Hulk

She-Hulk's movie rights are exclusively tied to those of her comic book cousin, Bruce Banner, so she too is hung up under the Universal banner for the time being. She ranks as one of the most well-rounded heroes in Marvel Comics, and she's more than deserving of a shot at her first big screen appearance. Jennifer Walters pulls double duty as both a full-time lawyer and a traditional superhero, and because she retains her intelligence and personality while in her green form, She-Hulk is often more effective at the whole saving the day thing than her rage-fueled cousin.

Having spent time as a member of pretty much every Marvel superteam around (including the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Defenders, and the Heroes for Hire) there's no shortage of places she could pop up within the MCU -- if Marvel ever manages to strike a deal with Universal, that is.

Namor

Namor is arguably the biggest character in Marvel Comics who's never really come close to appearing in live-action. The King of Marvel's Atlantis dates all the way back to the days of Timely Comics, having made his debut way back in 1939.

From what we can gather, the Sub-Mariner's screen rights situation resembles that of the Hulk: it's complicated, and it's all Universal's fault. While Marvel does appear to have the rights to the character to a certain extent, it's believed that Universal still holds sway over distribution. The latter studio has made multiple attempts at getting a film adaptation off the ground since they first optioned Namor back in 2001, though none have progressed past the scriptwriting phase.

About a year and a half ago, Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada stated that he believed that the rights to Namor were strictly back with Marvel Studios. That said, Quesada was proven wrong when he made a similar statement about that very same character a few years prior, and he didn't sound particularly sure of himself the second time around, either. It's very possible that Namor could be among the 20 MCU movies planned to follow Avengers 4, but until someone like MCU head Kevin Feige confirms it, there's no way to know for sure.

Spider-Man characters

And you thought the other characters listed here have confusing rights issues. Truth be told, we still don't have a concrete understanding of which of Spider-Man's supporting characters and villains the MCU can or can't use under the shared deal made with Sony back in 2015. The only Spidey characters we know for sure that Marvel has the rights to are the folks that appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Here's what we do know: Marvel can use Tom Holland's Peter Parker five times (in Civil War, Homecoming and its sequel, and Avengers 3 and 4) before they have to renegotiate a new agreement with Sony. Sony, meanwhile, is developing its own Marvel universe independent of the MCU, starting with the Tom Hardy-starring Venom movie that releases later this year. Where the rights land for the web-slinger's rogues gallery (Green Goblin, Doc Ock, etc.) and allies (Gwen Stacy, Jessica Drew, etc.) was never made entirely clear, but it was believed that the two companies would be finding some way to divvy up those characters and distribute them amongst their respective cinematic universes. Marvel may not have secured the full rights to Spider-Man's world, but hey, Peter Parker's in the MCU, so everyone's happy. We thought all of that was relatively set in stone, but recent bombshell reports suggest otherwise.

Right. So, if Holland pops into this fall's Venom movie, then we can safely toss everything we thought we knew about the Marvel/Sony deal out the window. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria, that sort of thing. If these reports are true, and Holland is indeed making an appearance in Venom, then continuity laws dictate that Eddie Brock's solo movie takes place within the MCU. Marvel Studios, then, presumably has access to the full Spider-verse. If these reports are in fact false...well, we still don't really know which Spidey characters Marvel can use and which they can't. It's a pretty bizarre situation honestly, but we'll keep you updated as we learn more.

Next: All The Evidence Venom Is Actually In The MCU