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From what I can tell, Disney and Marvel are doing it to be dicks about the pissing match between Disney and Fox over the X-Men film rights. Disney doesn’t own the film rights to the X-Men films, they don’t like the terms with Fox or don’t like that Fox owns the film rights, and they think diminishing and ruining the X-Men franchise in the comics is the way to go.
It’s why they’re trying to turn the Inhumans into a replacement for the X-Men. It’s why Wolverine’s been killed off and Magneto will likely be too. It’s why the X-Men didn’t have a panel at SDCC last year while Spider-Verse did, and why there’s been a massive drop in the number of X-Men titles since last year. It’s why when Days of Future Past came out, Marvel Entertainment put out no advertising for the X-Men comics or put Pietro on any covers of All-New X-Factor. In fact, I strongly suspect the real reason All-New X-Factor got no real promotion and ultimately got canceled was the pissing contest between Disney and Fox over the films.
There are smart ways to handle a spat with another company over rights, and there are stupid ways. Disney and Marvel are choosing to be really, really stupid. It’s going to bite them in the ass, if it hasn’t already.
Its only going to bite them in the ass in the short run. Disney/Marvel is playing a much larger game they’re confident they can win. In light of the facts that superheroes are not leaving anytime soon, Marvel’s incredibly long history of publishing, the nostalgic nature of the viewers/readers, and that Disney has a ton of resources at their disposal, they’re probably going to get the X-Men back and then go back to how things were. Even if they lose a majority of readers now, 5 years down the road human nature will kick in and readers will return, new readers will develop, and Disney will make a profit again. This is how business is run and how risk works.
Actually, it’ll bite them in the ass in the long run too. They’re playing a larger game, but not large enough, and they’re going to lose.
Disney and Marvel are operating under the assumption that hurting the X-Men franchise on their end trickles down into hurting Fox. And to a very small and limited extent, that’s true. It does mean less exposure if there’s no cartoons or toys, and people who started reading the comics for non-X-Men franchises might not shift over into being diehard X-Men fans if the X-Men aren’t used much or well.
But those are small numbers compared to the film consumer base. If the film is good enough, people will go see it anyway. Look at the Resident Evil live-action films. They screw over the source material. The second film especially is a huge insult to Jill Valentine in particular. People complain about those films constantly online. And yet… they’re some of the most successful films based on video games out there. Capcom isn’t even making any toys or video games or anything to help promote those films, and they’re still successful. Perhaps a case could be made that Capcom continuing to push the franchise with recent games contributes to that, but the second film came out at a low point for the franchise.
That’s what Fox is looking at. In the X-Men franchise, Fox has a franchise that served as Marvel’s biggest moneymaker for a decade. They can still promote the hell out of it without Marvel’s help through commercials, collabs with places like 7-Eleven, that sort of thing. That may even include some games or a live-action show. Fox isn’t going to throw away something with enough history of success that they know it can be successful again. They’re not going to give it up unless Disney and Marvel make them a very generous and tempting offer.
By contrast, Disney and Marvel are pushing away a LOT of current diehard fans of the X-Men franchise with their current behavior. At the bare minimum, they’re pushing fans toward seeing the films to get their fix of the X-Men franchise they love so much, because Disney and Marvel refuse to give it to them.
At worst? They play into Fox’s hand. Since Disney and Marvel own the franchise, they could set a narrative of giving more exposure to the X-Men franchise, in the form of “We could treat the franchise so much better if things could be worked out with Fox.” Play up collaboration between Avengers and X-Men, but in a way that the X-Men actually look good and are treated with respect. When a film comes out, stress the source material, and emphasize the idea that Fox is straying too far from it.
But that’s not what Disney and Marvel are doing. Instead, they’re trying to diminish and ruin the franchise on their own end. Doing this results in Disney and Marvel looking like they’re BAD for the franchise. On the one hand, we have Fox. Fox strays from the source material, may do odd things or even bomb occasionally… but it’s granting the franchise more respect than Disney and Marvel have demonstrated with their ownership of everything outside the film rights.
Disney and Marvel are essentially turning the X-Men fanbase against themselves.
And you might say “Yeah, but the Marvel films mean those fans will be replaced,” but that’s a misconception. It implies you can only have one or the other. In reality, there is no choice between one or the other here. You can have both. No matter how you look at it, Disney and Marvel refusing to treat the franchise respectfully on their end translates into a loss of sales, and there’s no Avengers-side counter-gain to make up for it.
“Equaling out” back to what they were before these tactics, if it happens, will not be a sign of success. It will still be less than the gain they would’ve had if they didn’t pull these stunts in the first place. That effect is permanent.
Sorry for the long screed, I think I’ve said all I needed to now.
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