The MCU nearly had to make do without Captain America or Thor, a Recent Interview Reveals
Marvel was in the process of licensing out their properties to major studios some time ago, after seeing success with Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man, and two of their biggest guns nearly went the same way.
Producer David Maisel is attributed the glory for righting the ship and helping to shape Marvel into the powerhouse it has become today. Before his arrival, the company pretty much had pen to paper, and Captain America was headed to Warner Bros. Thor would end up at Sony,but Maisel was instrumental in seeing that the damage was not done.
"The more movies, the better because there's more consumer products to sell. If I had gotten there three months, six months later, those deals (Cap and Thor) would have been done," he says, "and there would be no chance to bring all these characters together."
He reveals that Iron Man was also idling at New Line, though that studio believed it a lousy property. Maisel blocked all the deals when he saw a bigger picture where all these characters could co-exist. He showed the team the animated films to show what the Avengers could look like.
To prove its value, he made a deal with Lionsgate to do low-budget animated Iron Man and Avengers films. Lionsgate would finance the films for a distribution fee and would acquire half the profit.
"It allowed me to say to people: 'Look at the value of our IP. Here's someone paying all the money, and we have creative control and get half the profits,' Maisel said.
Source: Comicbook
