The new Fantastic Four movie is a bust, so naturally, fans are asking when Marvel Studios can get the movie rights back from 20th Century Fox. Good question, but keep dreaming.
The superhero movie genre is booming right now thanks to Marvel Studios and is expected to get even better with the addition of new films in the DC Extended Universe. This is one of the main reasons why Fox might never release the Fantastic Four back into the hands of Marvel.
The last Fantastic Four movie before this massive mess hit theaters back in 2007. Now, bear in mind that in order for Fox to keep the rights to the franchise, it would need to create a movie within seven years after the last.
The years 2007 to 2014 is a full seven years, so Fox had to kickstart production on the film in 2014 and release it by 2015 to hold on to the rights for another seven years. As it stands right now, the company will be required to begin production on another movie by the year 2022 and release before the end of 2023.
From what we've come to understand, Fox had pre-planned a sequel to the 2015 disaster of a movie for 2017, and we expect it to happen despite the terrible reviews the new film has achieved so far.
On the other hand, should Fox choose to scrap the 2017 plans, that's fine too. The X-Men films are doing just fine, and if Deadpool becomes a success story as well, then that would put the company in a far better position.
Sony had no choice but to get pen to paper because the Amazing Spider-Man films were handled poorly, and that was the only meaningful Marvel property the studio owned.
On the matter of Fox, the company can continue churning out terrible Fantastic Four films as long as the X-Men and Deadpool franchises are successful. It would lead to more characters from these films getting their own solo outings, giving Fox a lot of room to test the waters with Fantastic Four until it gets it right.
At the end of the day, we're just speculating on what could happen.
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