The recent announcement that ABC will have a full "Inhumans" series drew mixed reactions primarily because of the fate of the movie.
While Marvel Studios has not yet rung the death knell for the movie that was previously scheduled on July 2019, this is the conclusion that was generally arrived at.
In the announcement by The Hollywood Reporter, they noted that Marvel Studios "previously abandoned plans for an 'Inhumans feature film." Later on, Marvel decided to continue the tentative plan, until this announcement that Marvel has partnered with ABC Studios for an eight-episode live-action drama series that will premiere in the 2017 fall TV season.
The Inhumans will still be seen in theaters, though: "Few details are known about the project, including its producers, cast and premise. The first two episodes of the series will debut in Imax theaters for two weeks in early September 2017 before moving to ABC, where they will be followed by six subsequent new episodes," THR stated.
Most sites took this as a virtual death sentence to the Inhumans movie which was rather surprising since speculation ensued that the Inhumans are likely to take center stage in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Avengers may have run its course. Also, Marvel does not have too many known characters under their wing because the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters belong to Fox.
Has that changed? This is a question that Cinema Blend has dared to speculate on. Marvel would not just abandon the possible main characters of their Phase 4 movie line unless they have found a better replacement.
"Who knows, maybe by then Marvel and 20th Century Fox will have worked out a deal to bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU. Their sci-fi shenanigans would be an excellent substitute for the mutated, royal weirdness 'Inhumans' would have offered," CB's Adam Holmes suggested.
This is pure speculation at this point but there are signs that the two are closer to a deal than ever before. It has been revealed that Marvel and Fox had a trade off with regards to their properties, specifically for the Deadpool movie.
This was revealed in an interview with "Deadpool" screenwriter Paul Wernick in The Playlist. "We were looking down the list of the 400 characters that Fox owns, and NTW (Negasonic Teenage Warhead) jumped out and we were like, 'yes,'I don't care what her powers are. She's gonna be in the movie.'"
Wernick also revealed who Marvel took in return: "Kurt Russell ['s Ego the Living Planet] in the new Guardians movie was the character that Fox swapped with Marvel to [change] Negasonic Teenage Warhead powers."
If a deal can be struck that can be profitable for both studios, it's likely to happen. With Fox losing their top character (Wolverine) and "X-Men: Apocalypse" not reaching expectations, they may consider a deal similar to what Sony did with Spider Man.