What’s The Deal With QUICKSILVER & AVENGERS 2?

It’s no mystery that Joss Whedon has already written Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch into the AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON screenplay as the villains, but it is a mystery as to who actually owns the film rights to these characters. Two suspects: MARVEL STUDIOS and 20TH CENTURY FOX.

The pair first appeared in X-Men #4 and happen to be twins under their father, Magneto. Magneto is an X-Men character, and they first appeared in an X-Men comic book issue, so it’d be safe to think that they are X-Men property. Not so fast! Just because they started out with the X-Men does not mean they are X-Men for life!

The pair had several brief appearances after their debut as villains since they were apart of the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. Eventually, the X-Men realize they are not evil, but it’s too late. The twins travel back to Europe where they are recruited to the second generation of Avengers by Iron Man. With Hawkeye and Captain America, the four are considered “Cap’s Kooky Quartet” since their is much conflict, most of it stirred up by Quicksilver. The twins were regular members of the Avengers for over 30 issues, until they return about 20 issues later. Obviously, they are big in the Avengers Universe.

But who are they more important to? Magneto is a major player in the X-Men universe, but these two were major players in the early Avengers. Many fans theorized that Marvel could use the characters if they were not called mutants and had different names. Seriously, changes that drastic render them completely different characters.

Just after Joss Whedon had announced that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch would be the villains in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Bryan Singer announced on Twitter that Evan Peters would be playing Quicksilver in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. What seemed like a douche move by Fox could have been a coincidence. Even so, Marvel began looking at Aaron Taylor-Johnson, to play their version of Quicksilver. You have Kick-Ass‘s friend? WELL, WE’LL GET KICK-ASS HIMSELF.

Kevin Feige recently spoke on the confusing matter the other day before the Marvel Studios panel at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con.

“I can’t speak for Fox–I think Fox might do something–but we’re not prepared to do anything with that. It’s early days for us. We just know that there’s enough Quicksilver in the comics and there’s a reason that each studio has a right to that character is because he’s a certain way in the Avengers comic, he’s a certain way in the X-Men comic, and from what I know now, we’re treating him as very very distinct different characters.”

In all honesty, it’s pretty hard to decide who actually owns the characters in terms of who were they most important to and how much did they appear in each series. But like Feige says, I think we can all agree that both Marvel and Fox can claim the film rights to these characters.

‘The Avengers 2′ is currently in pre-production and is set for a release date of May 1, 2015.