Could Marvel create an original Superhero for the movies?

[Spidey-Lad93]

Do you think Marvel will one day create an original superhero who has never appeared in comics or any form of media and give them a big role in the MCU ?

 

[drod1985]

I often wonder this myself. I think we'll see it, but not until they run out of strong titles to adapt, which will be a while.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Absolutely they could.

 

[Shikamaru]

I have a feeling they'll eventually get to doing it.

 

[smallville fan]

I made a thread a while ago talking about this very idea.

Made for movies Heroes and Villains in the MCU

I think Marvel has more than enough to keep themselves going for a very long time. Now that we live in a reality where Marvel is powerful enough to reclaim rights, original superheroes in the movies may never even happen at all as we already have great established material to work with and getting more back.

In the TV shows, like Lincoln from AoS, it's a different story.

 

[Rorschach2012]

i just want to see existing heroes on the bigscreen

 

[DrCosmic]

I think they could, but it would end up being quite divisive. "What!? They put up a new character in the Marvel Universe before Sentry/New Warriors/Power Pack!? Characters with decades of fans and similar powers/looks/backgrounds/etc?"

For that reason, I think it'd be better to find the obscure character that most closely fits what they're looking for and modify them into what they want/need. That's what they did with Alexander Pierce from Captain America 2, he was essentially an original character named after a comics character. The same again with Aldrich Killian who was arguably both the Mandarin and Fing Fang Foom. It's just a matter of time before that happens with a hero. They already nuked Thor's origin (and the twins'), turned Vision into essentially Adam Warlock and Carol Danvers will be the original Captain Marvel. Good times to be had by all.

Also, the way movies are developed it would be *nothing* for them to have Marvel comics introduce the character in comics a year or more before the movie even came out. In fact, Marvel comics would want to. So, with that said, perhaps they can't... perhaps, if Marvel Studios does make an original character and chooses not to name them after a comics character, they would be unable to stop Marvel comics from putting that character in the comics first and cashing in on the wave the character is about to make.

 

[Hypestyle]

Might as well. Make it happen in phase 4

 

[regnak]

i just want to see existing heroes on the bigscreen

What he said.

 

[Mike5575]

Could they? Absolutely.

Would they? Most likely not. I mean why? It has always been about bringing comic book characters to life on the big screen.

 

[Spiderine]

They would probably want this new character to get at least some kind of exposure in other media before they just create a leading role in a theatrical film. Unless he/she is playing a supporting role to another character. Thats the only scenario I see happening. So I guess my answer is no to the original question.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Sure could... But they aren't even near a point where that even has to be thought about too hard. They have a lot of characters to get to.

Once could even say they sort of already have. Phil Coulson is a character totally made for the films after all.

 

[Flint Marko]

They could, but they wouldn't ever need to. They have thousands of characters to get to, and they've used incredibly obscure characters more time than people might realize.

 

[MbJ]

We've already seen them create original characters in the MCU so it's not like it'd be a big stretch.

They did just create some Korean Avengers webcomic last year starring a new character to try and appeal to Koreans.

 

[metaphysician]

*blink* In what way did they 'nuke' Thor's origin? He's still "arrogant god, turned into a mortal as a lesson in humility". The only thing they took out was Donald Blake, an aspect of his origin that had been largely deemphasized in the comics for decades.

 

[SirStrangefolk]

I think they could, but why would they? It's a lot safer to introduce the character in the comics first. That way you can see how popular the character might be and people won't complain about it not being a comicbook character. Marvel is still introducing new characters in several ways and with varying degrees of succes. For example I think we could definitely see Kamala Khan in a movie sometime, but that might not have been the case if she was introduced in the movies first. On the other hand, I can't really see movie with a character like White Fox or Guillotine working, or at least not yet as their characters aren't popular at all at this moment and nobody really knows them.

 

[MbJ]

I think they could, but why would they? It's a lot safer to introduce the character in the comics first. That way you can see how popular the character might be and people won't complain about it not being a comicbook character. Marvel is still introducing new characters in several ways and with varying degrees of succes. For example I think we could definitely see Kamala Khan in a movie sometime, but that might not have been the case if she was introduced in the movies first. On the other hand, I can't really see movie with a character like White Fox or Guillotine working, or at least not yet as their characters aren't popular at all at this moment and nobody really knows them.

Not really. The thing that cannot be overstated is that comic book readers make up a very tiny portion of the movie-going audience. We're the loudest an most vocal, but not a particularly huge percentage of the movie-goers. If you want an example, Ant-Man is a good one. It's on track to do a big opening but that's because the trailers and marketing did a great job, and it has the benefit of being tied to the MCU. The fans were screaming about how "Finally, we're getting one of the missing founding Avengers!" but most of the audience had no idea who he is or that he was "missing" from the Avengers movie in the first place.

To use your example, if Marvel decided to make a White Fox movie or a Guillotine movie and then did everything possible to promote it heavily and make sure its connections to the MCU are evident in the promotional material, I'm sure it'd still do well at the box office.

 

[BarryAllen]

One of the biggest appeals of the MCU is seeing characters that were never given a chance to finally make their live action debuts done right. Marvel has a huge library of characters. There's a very big chance that they can find a character from the comics who can fill the void of whatever position they are trying to fill.

 

[SirStrangefolk]

Not really. The thing that cannot be overstated is that comic book readers make up a very tiny portion of the movie-going audience. We're the loudest an most vocal, but not a particularly huge percentage of the movie-goers. If you want an example, Ant-Man is a good one. It's on track to do a big opening but that's because the trailers and marketing did a great job, and it has the benefit of being tied to the MCU. The fans were screaming about how "Finally, we're getting one of the missing founding Avengers!" but most of the audience had no idea who he is or that he was "missing" from the Avengers movie in the first place.

To use your example, if Marvel decided to make a White Fox movie or a Guillotine movie and then did everything possible to promote it heavily and make sure its connections to the MCU are evident in the promotional material, I'm sure it'd still do well at the box office.

I know that comic book readers are a very small portion of the movie audience, but from what I've seen around me and on the internet, and experienced myself as a kid before I read comics, "casuals"/movie fans/the GA do like to get to know about the characters from the comics. Even though I had never read comics, I knew about Gwen Stacy, Mysterio, Rhino, Kraven, Vulture, Lizard, Carnage, Electro and all kinds of other Spider-Man characters because I liked him in the movies and wanted to know about him and related characters. I knew about them from asking around, looking them up on the internet and occasionally playing video games with those characters in them.

It also helps that when a movie gets announced, usually there are lots of webpages and videos about "who is ...", so people can get a quick overview of what they're in for. This would not be the case with an original character.

What I mean to say is that they would never do it even though they could, because, like you said, it's much more safe to do "everything possible to promote it heavily and make sure its connections to the MCU are evident in the promotional material" first. Because of that they would introduce them into the comics and heavily promote them first (like Kamala Khan or Miles Morales for example, quite a few people who don't read comics know them because of press). If they announced White Fox or Guillotine now, that would be far less beneficial and a much bigger risk than to promote them for a few years in the comics (and cartoons and such) and then announce the movie later.

 

[Mike5575]

With phase 3, Feige and co. have to worry about over-saturation of the MCU. Which heroes in phase 3 will they do sequels on? Will Marvel continue to do IM, Cap, and Thor movies as well? While most of the movie going audience aren't comic book fans, Kevin Feige is. Although, with the lack of female representation, its possible Marvel may create a couple female superheroines in the movies.

 

[DrCosmic]

*blink* In what way did they 'nuke' Thor's origin? He's still "arrogant god, turned into a mortal as a lesson in humility". The only thing they took out was Donald Blake, an aspect of his origin that had been largely deemphasized in the comics for decades.

Well, for one, he's not a god, he's an alien, as Odin underlines heavily in Thor 2. For two... well, maybe there is no two. They actually kept a version of Donald Blake in Thor 1, which I thought was cute in a way, and annoying in another. Nuke might be too strong a word, but they definitely changed it in a pretty doggone notable way.

 

[MbJ]

Again, it's already happened.

And in fact there's a number of notable characters in superhero fiction who were created for adaptations rather than the comics (Harley Quinn, Batgirl, and X-23 are the most prominent).

 

[Jammat]

Could Hope Van Dyne become an original hero? She seems to be an amalgam of the villain by the same name with elements of both Hank and Jan, so not entirely original, but not quite as seen in the comics either.

Personally I'd love to see Marvel take her story on in a new film to develop a new strong female superhero.

 

[metaphysician]

I wouldn't really consider that a "true" new character. Its only slightly more extreme than how they've adapted a bunch of other characters already.

 

[MbJ]

Hope is essentially "in name only" in that they wanted to come up with a daughter for Hank, and gave her the name of his evil supervillain alternate future daughter since he has no canon offspring with Jan in the comics.

It's far from the only case of the MCU taking a name from the comics and then literally nothing else (Agents of SHIELD is rather fond of this).