It might be lost on the casual fan just how much of the Marvel Universe 20th Century Fox has the rights to with their X-Men deal. When Marvel began licensing the film rights to the characters to studios, they spread their products across Hollywood, which is how the X-Men, Spider-Man, and others at the time ended up in different places from the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. With just the X-Men, Fox has all of the primary characters but also the respective spin-off teams that branched out of the X-Men, and not to mention many of the alien species that inhabit the larger galaxy in the Marvel Universe.
There is one place and character however that is a little different, Ka-Zar and The Savage Land. The Savage Land as a place first made its debut in the pages of Marvel Mystery Comics in 1941 with the first Ka-Zar appearing in 1939’s Marvel Comics #1, this being when the publisher was known as Timely Comics, which would later become Marvel. The character was short-lived in the Timely days, but when Ka-Zar (albeit a different character) and The Savage Land made their debut in Marvel Comics proper, it was in the pages of the X-Men comics.
Does this mean that 20th Century Fox could use this location and character? Are they perhaps co-shared by both Fox and Marvel Studios, like Quicksilver? We asked series producer Hutch Parker this question on the set of X-Men: Apocalypse, which you can read our full report by clicking here, and he replied:
“To be totally honest, I don’t know. I don’t know, and I kind of should because of my time at the studio, but it’s a pretty carefully cataloged thing and once we get our head down into stories, and we are into a bunch of them, that’s where my attention goes. I haven’t gone back to check but now that you’ve asked the question, I shall.”
A rumor popped up back in 2010 that Marvel Studios was considering doing smaller films after The Avengers, with a Ka-Zar movie being among those rumored to be in the mix. For now though, it still remains unclear who has access to the character or his primordial island paradise.
Would you like to see the X-Men journey to The Savage Land in a future film? Sound off below!
