IDK nobody is saying.. Why is nobody saying?
My thought would have been that if there was a deal, they would announce it at some point since it would be hard to keep secret.
But that would be the only real reason to make an announcement rather than waiting.
Ideally, if a deal was made but nothing will happen until later, the best thing would be to keep that information secret until close to the time they have a product to sell.
An announcement regarding a deal will generate buzz and excitement. If, after that buzz and excitement, people have to wait another four years to see anything, that buzz and excitement will have been squandered. It would be much better, from a marketing perspective, to make the announcement and then follow up with bits and pieces leading to an actual film within a year or less of the announcement.
Let's imagine that Marvel has the rights and will feature a young Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom in Infinity Wars.
The ideal way to reveal that, in my opinion, would be to announce they have the rights at the 2017, July Comic-con -
but don't actually confirm any characters will be featured in any upcoming films.
Then, as anticipation builds for the May release of IW, drop little hints and glimpses from the set that
suggest Doom and Richards might appear in the film, but don't officially confirm it until shortly before release.
Something like that would get maximum bang for the buck because rumors and buzz would slowly build to a crescendo just in time for people to buy their tickets.
If you imagine an alternative in which they announced today that they have the rights and Doom and Richards will appear in IW, the internet would explode . . . today . . . and then by May 2018, it would be old news and not nearly as exciting.
But again, that's the marketing ideal. I would expect they couldn't keep it secret and that would force their hand to announce it sooner rather than later. But we've had some rumors and nobody believes those, so
IF they have the rights, they've successfully maintained secrecy, so it would make sense to hold off as long as possible at this point until we're closer to seeing some characters in a film.
That doesn't mean they have the rights, but lack of an announcement, in no way, indicates they
don't have the rights.