I mean, it ended up being the right decision in the end, and they got the rights back anyways.

No, it wasn't a mistake, it was the end result of a lot of different mistakes. Marvel was on the verge of bankruptcy and they needed to sell the cinematic rights to those characters to keep the company afloat. If they hadn't done that, Marvel would have ceased to exist and the MCU would never have existed in the first place.

Besides, if they had had the rights to Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four etc., we never would have seen more obscure characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy brought to the screen.

I mean probably before the MCU was even a thing I don't think Marvel even knew how far they would have gone before Disney got them

But was it a mistake no, Marvel probably had a reason to give certain characters off to Sony, Universal and Fox when they first started

At the time Marvel was just releasing movies for certain characters such as Spider-Man, The Punisher, Ghost Rider, Blade and Fantastic Four

Fox was doing well with their X-Men movies but they were hitting bumpy roads with certain projects over the course of their run

When Marvel launched the MCU I think they didn't know how big they were going to be with Phase 1

For Spider-Man I think after The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony was getting desperate to either make yet another reboot or allow Kevin and Disney to use him in the MCU

Plus I think at the time Sony made their own universe because many franchise from DC to Star Wars to Godzilla and many others because well Marvel was doing really well at the box office and many companies had hoped they could be successful with their own cinematic universe and we all know how those turned out

The only way I see Sony giving up the rights to Spider-Man could be after Spider-Noir and the Spider-Verse trilogy

Sony could continue the animated Spider-Man films but they can give the rights back to Disney

Marvel can do so much with Spider-Man to make Sony not get upset but I think one day maybe Sony will give up the rights to the character that way they can have full control

Seeing how the Sony's Spider-Man Universe was just a major failure, I doubt Sony will continue with that universe and just their focus on the animated movies because those are doing really well

As for Hulk and Namor, in all honesty I am not sure why Universal still has those rights to those characters. Universal isn't really making much Marvel movies anymore seems like their focus is on Fast & Furious and the Jurassic Park/World franchise

To me I think at this point Universal should have given up the rights to Hulk and Namor a long time ago.

I know that Mark Ruffalo has talked to Universal asking them to make another solo Hulk movie (not sure how that's going)

But yeah Universal just need to give up those rights

Will everyone be under Marvel's roof? Not sure.

Kevin did say that Miles can come into the MCU after Beyond the Spider-Verse so there is a possibility that Sony will just hand the rights to Spider-Man and all of the characters after that movie and Sony just ends their run for their super hero movies

@Optimusprimebumblebee "Neo Astral-X" 123 They won't just give the rights to those characters to Disney, they'll demand a king's ransom for them.

As much I would loved for Sony to finally give up that ghost and just sent him home already, that's never going to happen. MCU Spidey and the Spider-Verse are their biggest films that they released every year that makes them the most money, Sony would be Moronic if they do give him back to Marvel.

The Universal meanwhile are just way too old school not to asked for something in return and the last thing we needed is Marvel to trade them a character like Daredevil or one of the X-Men for a character that very few people cared about in Namor and Banner.

@Greater good it depends on the future of Sony

So far what we know is Spider-Noir, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse and Spider-Punk

Sony doesn’t have a big future

And once that’s done we don’t know what they will do next

So they can keep the rights to Spider-Man and not hand them back to Marvel

Or just give up the rights and them keep making the animated films because we all know there isn’t going to be more of the live action movies and so far Spider-Noir is the only live action show that is moving forward

So I guess we will see what they will do

Short term wise it may benefit marvel from getting away from bankruptcy.

Long term wise marvel cannot use them freely.

It wasn't a mistake. Marvel in the 90's didn't have a choice. They had to sell the film rights in order to keep the company a float. Once X-Men, Spider-Man, and Iron Man started getting successful (and the MCU as well), Marvel got the film rights to their characters back overtime. The only big characters that hasn't been fully owned by Marvel (in terms of film rights) are Hulk, Namor, and Spider-Man, and their associated characters.

I am speaking for a long term mistake, by the point marvel got their rights back their introduction is way too late at this point (specifically the x men. Imagine having spiderman right from the get go and we got him as possibly one of the avengers or even the first mcu film is about him.

Given the circumstances, that was impossible. If they hadn't sold those rights, this franchise would not exist and none of us would be here talking about it.