The Story Behind How Marvel Characters Ended Up At Universal Orlando Before Disney World

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Going to Walt Disney World today is an adventure that allows guests to enter some of the most popular franchises that there have ever been. From Disney and Pixar to Avatar and Star Wars, the Disney umbrella covers an incredible number of popular stories and characters. And yet, one of Disney’s biggest collections of characters, the Marvel super heroes, are a comparatively small part of what you’ll find at the Orlando resort.

This is because there’s an entire land full of Marvel heroes that can be found at a different Florida theme park: Disney’s major theme park competitor, Universal Orlando Resort. So how in the world did Marvel heroes end up at Disney’s biggest competitor, and will that ever change?

Marvel Made A Deal With Universal Parks Before Disney Bought The Company

Disney purchased Marvel in 2009, but it was a decade and a half earlier, in 1994, that Marvel Entertainment Group signed a contract to license Marvel characters to MCA Recreation Services, the predecessor to Universal Destinations and Experiences. At the time, Universal Studios Florida was in the process of developing its second theme park, which would be called Universal Islands of Adventure.

When Islands of Adventure opened in 1999, it would include the Marvel Superhero Island. A Spider-Man dark ride and an Incredible Hulk roller coaster would be among the attractions. Dozens of Marvel characters from Spider-Man to Captain America to the X-Men would also be included as walk-around characters.

A decade after the park opened, Disney purchased Marvel. The MCU has since become the biggest movie franchise of all time. In most cases, popular Disney movies result in new Disney World attractions, but in this case, that didn't happen.

Even Disney Is Limited In How It Can Use Marvel Characters

Obviously Disney can't simply ignore a contract that its subsidiary signed before it was purchased. It has to abide by the deal. While Disney would almost certainly love to cancel the deal, there's no option in the contract to do that. The company also can't simply wait it out.

Licensing deals like the one Marvel signed with Universal usually are designed to last for a specific amount of time, but this deal actually has no expiration date. Disney's situation with Marvel is similar to how The Simpsons are at Universal parks, but the deal Universal signed with Fox reportedly expires in 2028.

As long as Marvel Superhero Island remains open, the attractions are maintained “in a first-class manner,” and Universal pays Marvel the licensing fees and merchandise shares the contract stipulates, then Universal continues to own the exclusive rights to Marvel characters in theme parks east of the Mississippi River.

The Universal/Marvel deal has put Disney’s theme park business in a unique position because even though it actually owns Marvel, it's under the same restrictions that any other theme park would be under. If a Marvel character is being used at Universal, then they can’t be used by anybody else, including Disney.

Disney Has Taken Advantage Of The Contracts Exceptions

Universal's rights to Marvel characters are not absolute. Universal only gained exclusive rights to the Marvel characters in theme parks east of the Mississippi River, and even then, only to families of characters that the park actively used.

One group of heroes that was not particularly popular until 15 years after Islands of Adventure opened was the Guardians of the Galaxy. You won't find Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon or Groot anywhere in the Universal theme park land. This is why the one major Marvel attraction at all of Walt Disney World is a Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster.

Also, since Universal's use is limited to theme parks east of the Mississippi, Disney was able to have a much stronger Marvel presence at Disneyland Resort. Avengers Campus, an entire Marvel land, opened at Disney California Adventure in 2021. But even in that land, concessions to Universal had to be made.

If you’re curious why the name of the land is Avengers Campus, and why the Marvel name is nowhere to be found, it’s because the deal with Universal gives them the exclusive rights to the Marvel name for marketing purposes throughout the U.S. Disneyland Resort uses “Avengers” as its general term for all things Marvel.

Could Disney Get The Theme Park Rights To Marvel Back?

Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel heroes are more popular than they’ve ever been with the general public, which makes the brand potentially quite lucrative to whoever owns it. Of course, Universal doesn’t have the rights to the MCU versions of the characters, so it’s only able to tangentially benefit from that.

It’s been rumored at various points that Disney might be interested in gaining the full theme park rights back from Universal, or even that Universal may be looking to replace its Marvel land with something new. It is 25 years old, after all. While either of these things are certainly possible, it’s difficult to say how likely that is especially in the short term.

One assumes that Disney makes good money getting paid its licensing fees and merchandising shares without having to build and maintain attractions. The Spider-Man attraction at Islands of Adventure is frequently rated one of the best in the entire theme park, so Universal has reason to want to keep it around. Although the Spider-Man attraction at Universal Studios Japan was recently closed, so we can't pretend such a thing couldn't happen in Florida.

It’s also unclear exactly what Disney World would do with Marvel characters if it had the chance. While adding Marvel land to Disney’s Hollywood Studios or even Magic Kingdom is certainly possible, Hollywood Studios is getting a Monsters Inc. land, and Magic Kingdom is getting new Cars attractions in a redesigned Frontierland and a Villains land, so Disney would seem to have its plate full for a few years.

Still, If you’re a fan of Marvel heroes and you’re going to an Orlando theme park, it makes more sense to visit Universal than Disney World right now. It’s possible, even likely, that at some point Disney isn’t going to want that to be the case. One imagines the theme park rights will end up in Disney’s hands one day, but how far away that day is is still a big question.