Did Marvel Make A Deal With Fox For Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Characters?

Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 follow.

Marvel Studios‘ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opened in theaters this weekend, and it features several surprise cameos from Marvel Comics characters. However, none are as surprising as the characters that appeared alongside Stan Lee during his cameo.

Lee’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 cameo sees him hanging out in space with three figures. Those figures appear to be Watchers, a unique alien race created by Lee himself and Jack Kirby. The Watchers, as the name implies, watch and remember all of the events that take place throughout the galaxy, vowing never to become involved.

However, it is surprising to find the Watchers appearing in a Marvel Studios film because the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #13. While we don’t know for sure, that – along with the history of the most famous Watcher, Uatu – would lead most to assume he had been included with the rights to the Fantastic Four that were sold to 20th Century Fox. Those rights also included the Silver Surfer and Galactus, two more cosmic Marvel characters who debuted in Fantastic Four.

Does this mean that Marvel Studios and Fox made some sort of deal to allow the Watchers to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? These kinds of character swaps seem to be becoming more and more common between the various studios making Marvel movies. The most famous one is obviously Sony and Marvel’s agreement to share custody of Spider-Man, but Marvel and Fox have made agreements in the past as well, including the one that allowed Ego the Living Planet to be used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

But we don’t know for certain that the Watchers were already given over to Fox. After all, the Inhumans also debuted in Fantastic Four, but their rights seem to have always been with Marvel Studios. However, it seems more likely that the Watchers were given to Fox based on what we’ve heard about Fox having the rights to manyMarvel’s cosmic characters and alien races, including Ego and the Skrulls.

If Fox did trade the Watchers to Marvel, then what did they get in return? Hopefully, a confirmation or denial and more details will surface sooner rather than later.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 currently has an 87.36 ComicBook.com Composite Score, the fourth-highest ComicBook.com Composite Score for a comic book movie of all time. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also has a 4.54 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Rating, giving it the second-highest ComicBook.com user rating among all comic book movies. Let us know what you thought of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 by giving it your own ComicBook.com user rating below.

Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is written and directed by James Gunn and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is now playing in theaters.

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