Refurbing Hulk and adding new show elements is a whole lot different than adding a whole new attraction for say Silk and/or Black Cat. Both of which don't appear in the area but are technically eligible since they are part of the Spider-Man family of characters umbrella. And for which I highly doubt Disney would give approval to use.
There are published patents for the Iron Man ride. They weren’t going to waste money on something like that if they weren’t allowed to developed new attractions.
As we know from Disney, publishing a patent with examples isn't an indication of actual use. How many Disney patents have been published over the years where they gave examples of character uses that never made it into the Parks or were used for other characters that never was provided in the patent. 100s? 1000s?
That doesn’t address my point. Of course things don’t go through but that doesn’t mean they weren’t the result of work and actual projects. Disney also does a lot more pure research and development, and Universal Creative was a much smaller, still more reliant on third-party vendors team when the attraction concept was developed, so it’s not an even comparison. The Iron Man ride was a real project and it would not have been if Disney could have just killed it.
But not East of the Mississippi unless Universal axes IoA Marvel.
So let me address it in another way. There was no direct reference to Iron Man by name in the patent, only a basic drawing which one could say resembled him, really could also resemble a Sentinel from X-Men, but they never called the character by name. Which indicates that they didn't have approval to use it, and didn't know 100% if they could move forward with it.
The lack of unrelated IP, especially licensed property, in a patent is a good practice in general.
God I hope not
You literally said replacing Marvel Superhero Island which would negate the contract and give the rights back to Disney.
They can add or modify and existing attraction so long as as it retains the 1990s comic book look and doesn't cheapen the franchise. However, I'd imagine adding any DC would invoke the second clause.
There is nothing that specifies retaining the 90s comic book look. It says designs must be consistent with Marvel’s style guides.
They can replace it while also building new Marvel attractions. Just like they have the DC rights without any current DC attractions.
They have to maintain a dedicated Marvel land. A lot of the contract is also specific to the “second gate” which could require it to be in Islands of Adventure.
I'm pretty sure Six Flags has exclusive rights to the DC characters within the US, and has had them as such for some time.
The Marvel agreement directly coincided with Warner Bros.’ brief ownership of Six Flags. Pretty much the worst time to try and get those rights.
Actually Universal went with Marvel over the licensing fees, not Six Flags' contract. Although the difference was just a few percentage points Marvel, nearly bankrupt at the time, offered rights in perpetuity (i.e., forever) which sealed the deal.
It’s not for Project 555. It’s a short burn permit for an address that covers the entire property.
Just to be clear, are you referring to the reported notice of commencement filed on Dec. 16 2025 specifically naming Intamin as the contractor and “specialty equipment” as the description of improvements? Two park news sites are reporting that the parcel location is specifically the Lost Continent. I have no clue myself whether or not those numbers match. What are your thoughts?
Yes, I am referring to that notice. Lost Continent hasn’t even been torn down yet, so there’s nothing there for Intamin to do between now and the end of February 2026 when the notice says the work will be done.Just to be clear, are you referring to the reported notice of commencement filed on Dec. 16 2025 specifically naming Intamin as the contractor and “specialty equipment” as the description of improvements? Two park news sites are reporting that the parcel location is specifically the Lost Continent. I have no clue myself whether or not those numbers match. What are your thoughts?
Regardless of what actually happens, I’m still going to root for UO getting an intamin Dynamic Motion Stage attraction some day.