Though Marvel Studios, in partnership with Disney, is setting up a seriously impressive cinematic universe, there are some major hurdles on the way to getting the giant superhero team-ups that fans might dream of. Before Marvel started producing their own films, they sold the rights to their characters to various studios, some of whom spun out their own huge franchises-- Sony and Spider-Man, Fox and X-Men plus The Fantastic Four-- and some of whom suffered disappointing flops.
Those flops make it easier for Marvel Studios to now start rounding the gang back together again, and just a few days after confirming they'd gotten back the rights to Daredevil, they've brought two more back into the fold. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed to Entertainment Weekly (via Slashfilm), as part of a giant article on Marvel's Phase Two, that both Ghost Rider (which already had 2 films made with a Ghost Rider 3 lurking) and Blade (which made it to 3 movies) are now owned by Marvel Studios. But don't necessarily assume that means you'll be seeing new movies about them immediately:
They all have potential, but we’re not going to say ‘We got it back – make it.’
Ghost Rider, a character previously owned by Sony, got his own sequel with the widely loathed Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, a follow-up to the not-especially-beloved original Ghost Rider. While a few fans were clamoring for Ghost Rider 3 to happen, even star Nic Cage admitted that it probably wasn't going to happen. Now Ghost Rider 3 definitely won't.
So with Ghost Rider 3 basically dead and a much more lucrative Spider-Man series to focus on, you can see why Sony was willing to let it go. The Blade series has been dormant for a while now, since 2004's Blade: Trinity, and the rights were owned by New Line, the subsidiary of Warner Bros. that's faced major financial woes recently. You can't blame them for letting it go either.
Now we have to see how Marvel might revive either character, though take Feige's warning seriously-- their plans for Phase Two are already incredibly busy, and you probably have to wait until Ant-Man finally emerges for hard details on anything on Ghost Rider and Blade. But fans of the characters, rejoice! You're way more likely to see them again on screen now that they've back in the Marvel family.
