A “Marvel Gaming Universe” Almost Happened Once According to MARVEL RIVALS Writer

In the 1960s, Marvel introduced the concept of a unified universe across various comics. This idea was carried over to their animated series in the 1990s, and revolutionized the movie industry with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Interestingly, there was also a plan for a Marvel Gaming Universe, aimed at connecting all Marvel video games. Sadly, this never came to fruition. Alex Irvine, who played a significant role in the success of “Marvel Rivals,” once proposed an “MGU.” During a recent episode of “The Fourth Curtain Podcast” (through IGN), Irvine shared his thoughts on this hypothetical Marvel Gaming Universe with host Alexander Seropian.

Initially, when I began developing games for Marvel, there was an aspiration to build a Marvel gaming world mirroring the expansive nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Unfortunately, this vision never materialized, leaving me disheartened as we had generated numerous innovative concepts to make it happen.

Alex Irvine mentioned, “Even in the past, we pondered over questions like: What sets this MGU apart from comics and movies? How will we maintain consistency? Some of these queries became intricate enough that certain individuals at Disney felt apprehensive about addressing them legally.” It appears the complexity of these issues made it challenging for the higher-ups to iron out the necessary legalities to bring this into existence.

In essence, with so many parties involved in various projects related to different superheroes, bringing them all together under one banner could have been a complicated legal maze. For instance, Insomniac handled the Spider-Man games, while Square Enix was responsible for Marvel’s Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. The intricacies of ownership rights would have made it a daunting task. This is similar to the challenge faced in the early 2000s when numerous studios held the rights to most Marvel characters, making the creation of a Marvel Cinematic Universe seem impossible. Even when the MCU was launched, key characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men were absent initially. However, the future is uncertain, and it’s possible that one day, we might see a combined universe featuring all these superheroes. Some people might have thought Marvel and DC could never collaborate again, but here we are with crossovers happening now. So, superhero enthusiasts, let’s keep our fingers crossed as stranger things have indeed happened in the past.

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2025-03-20 19:32