Marvel Acquisition

[kim3471]

Since the recent Marvel Acquisition, my 5 year old son (who couldn't be more delighted that two of his favorite enterprises have merged) would like to know if anyone has heard any rumors of infusing superheroes into the WDW parks?

He'd give anything to have a character meal with Iron Man or Spiderman (probably to the extent that his 5 year old female counterparts feel about lunch or tea with Cinderella); or to be able to fly and rescue things from bad guys.

Pirates are awesome; but I think now we have a true equal to the princesses for the little boys out there that Disney could really run with.

Any thoughts?

Kimberly
(Aiden's mommy)

 

[Metro West]

Since the recent Marvel Acquisition, my 5 year old son (who couldn't be more delighted that two of his favorite enterprises have merged) would like to know if anyone has heard any rumors of infusing superheroes into the WDW parks?

He'd give anything to have a character meal with Iron Man or Spiderman (probably to the extent that his 5 year old female counterparts feel about lunch or tea with Cinderella); or to be able to fly and rescue things from bad guys.

Since Universal has the theme park rights to the characters that are currently being used at IOA, Disney can not use those characters at any of their parks in Florida so you won't be seeing Hulk, Spiderman, Captain America, etc. at WDW. There is a Spiderman character meal at IOA at Confisco's Grille but again...Disney can't use Spiderman in their parks so I don't think you'll see a Spiderman meal at WDW.

I think eventually Universal will tire of paying the fees to Marvel (Disney) and decide to retheme that island but that's not happening anytime soon.

 

[fannatic]

Jim Hill said in a podcast that Disney may be using the Marvel characters that Universal doesn't license in a major new attraction. He mentioned in another podcast that they may use such characters in a 5th park.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

I think eventually Universal will tire of paying the fees to Marvel (Disney) and decide to retheme that island but that's not happening anytime soon.

Are you serious? Universal has the upper hand on this and there is little Disney can do about it. They pay Marvel just as they always have; doesn't matter that Marvel is now owned by Disney. The only thing I could envision is Disney offering Universal a buy-out on the rights. Universal has so much debt that they are vulnerable to a buy-out. They're going to wait to see what Harry Potter does for them first.

BobK/Orlando

 

[Metro West]

Are you serious? Universal has the upper hand on this and there is little Disney can do about it. They pay Marvel just as they always have; doesn't matter that Marvel is now owned by Disney. The only thing I could envision is Disney offering Universal a buy-out on the rights. Universal has so much debt that they are vulnerable to a buy-out. They're going to wait to see what Harry Potter does for them first.

BobK/Orlando

Yup...but as I posted it is not coming anytime soon. I think the buy-out option is reasonable especially if Universal is still struggling when that time comes. Personally I think there are plans hiding somewhere about a possible replacement for Marvel Super Hero Island. Imagine Spiderman re-done as a new and much improved King Kong attraction...that would be beyond awesome! Again...this could happen but it's years down the road.

 

[Jason71]

Jim Hill said in a podcast that Disney may be using the Marvel characters that Universal doesn't license in a major new attraction. He mentioned in another podcast that they may use such characters in a 5th park.

Problem is, with the possible exceptions or Iron Man and Thor, IoA has all the iconic/well-known characters tied up: Spiderman, Hulk, Captain America, Fantastic 4, (at the very least) all the X-Men anyone other than hard-core fanboys know. Heck, they might even own old Shellhead and the God of Thunder...they use them for decor, at least, and I imagine when Marvel signed the deal it was pretty all-encompassing.

I don't see Universal surrendering a popular franchise to its top competitor and committing to another re-do of a land any time soon. If Potter World starts to show its age in a decade, maybe, but until then, that's a lot of money, effort and wasted brand identity with no real payoff.

 

[dwaters]

I saw Iron Man toys at the Disney store and did a double-take. I thought about the merger and said, "Oh yeah".

Now Kermit the Frog, Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse are under the same roof.

Even though they are Muppets, Jim Henson made sure the Sesame Street Muppets were not included when Disney bought the Muppet franchise. Weird, because Kermit was appearing on Sesame Street years before he got his own show.
Could you imagine all the Elmo plush toys you'd see in the parks???