Marvel Is Reportedly Trying To Do A Secret Wars Movie

Marvel is reportedly trying to do a Secret Wars movie, based on any number of the Marvel Comics storylines that go by that name. The 2015 Secret Wars storyline by Jonathan Hickman has been particularly attractive to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it took various dimensions of the Marvel Multiverse and collided them together, before re-establishing a more streamlined central timeline, based on pick-and-choose elements of those other universes. It's the exact kind of franchise re-arrange that Marvel Studios is looking for with its current Multiverse Arc, and now we have one of the more compelling pieces of circumstantial evidence that MCU Secret Wars is in the works.

Former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter did a panel at Megacon in Orlando, Florida (via Geekosity), where he shared an interesting bit of recent business he's had with Marvel. Apparently, Marvel approached Shooter to do a novel based on Secret Wars, as he was the writer of the original 1984-1985 Secret Wars storyline that helped define the Marvel crossover event concept.

However, when Shooter ended up looking over his contract for the Secret Wars novel he found it was actually a contract for something much more complicated, with the book merely being a two-page rider. When Shooter turned the contract down, Senior Vice President of Operations & Procurement of Publishing at Marvel Entertainment David Bogart personally reached out to him. Bogart allegedly apologized for the contractual hijinks and apparently offered him a new retroactive work-for-hire contract with a $10,000 payout.

Having been a longtime veteran of the comics industry, Shooter could read the apparent writing on the wall, and to him, it spelled out that Disney and Marvel were covering their legal bases for getting a Secret Wars project in development for the MCU. According to Shooter, he straight-out asked Bogart, "This means you're making a movie right?"

When the Marvel executive allegedly responded "What? I'm not allowed to tell you that." Bogart said his response was, "I think you just did."

The discrepancy of old-school comic book creators and their payment (or lack thereof) for their characters and storylines being used in blockbuster films has been an increasing issue over the last few years. Jim Shooter may be on to something when sniffing out why Marvel has been approaching him as of late.

Secret Wars is an event - maybe THE event - that Marvel fans have been expecting Phase 4 of the MCU to build to, all along. the event already seems to be in motion after Loki, as the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse and the threat of Kang The Conqueror seem like perfect framing for the MCU Secret Wars event. More importantly, the outcome of the Secret Wars battle is the perfect framing for a new reboot MCU timeline - one that opens the doors of Phase 5 to characters like the X-Men and Fantastic Four. It's also the one event Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame directors The Russo Brothers have said they want to make.

In other words: Jim Shooter may have just let a major cat out of the bag.