Is it true that Michael Jackson wanted to buy Marvel to play Spider-Man?

Michael Jackson was many things: a singer, a dancer, a songwriter, a music producer, and a choreographer, but, according to online publications, he wanted to add “Marvel superhero” to his resume. We checked whether the King of Pop really wanted to play Spider-Man.

On various websites and social networks, you can often come across the following statement: “In the 90s, Michael Jackson tried to buy the Marvel company only in order to produce a film about Spider-Man and play the title role in it himself.” For example, on VKontakte there are posts with such information walk for many years now and collect thousands of likes. Not without mentioning the desire to play Spider-Man and numerous collections on the topic of little-known facts about Jackson's life. Over the decades, the story has acquired various details, so we will try to understand its essence.

In the 1990s, Marvel Entertainment Group was going through hard times. She suffered heavy losses, and in order to save herself from complete bankruptcy, at the end of the decade she had to team up with Toy Biz, a toy manufacturing company. If rumors are to be believed, around that time Michael Jackson planned to buy the company responsible for creating many of the most popular superheroes, including the Hulk, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and, of course, Spider-Man.

The fact that Jackson wanted to buy Marvel was confirmed many times by himself. Stan Lee is one of the most iconic figures in the comics industry. Lee not only co-created many heroes, including Spider-Man (Peter Parker's alter ego), but also served as editor-in-chief and publisher of Marvel Comics for many years. In addition, Lee said that Jackson tried to enlist his support and help in that planned major deal.

The most detailed story about the attempted purchase of Marvel stated in The Comics Journal #270, 2005 issue. Without going into details, in 1998 Lee and his partner Peter F. Paul, who eventually went to prison for fraud, created Stan Lee Media (SLM). Paul was obsessed with the idea of ​​buying Marvel, and Michael Jackson, a fan of Lee and comics, became a potential acquisition partner. One day he came to the SLM office to discuss the details of the deal. Also present at the meeting was former Marvel editor Jim Salikrup, who was then working at SLM. According to Salicrup, Jackson asked Lee, “If I buy Marvel, will you help me run it?” He replied: “Of course.” The deal ultimately failed because the parties were unable to agree on the terms of the sale (They say, that the cost of Marvel was deliberately inflated to $1 billion).

But if fans and journalists came to a consensus about the failed purchase, then the situation with Jackson’s alleged superhero roles is more complicated. According to various sources, the musician tried to get two roles of famous comic book characters at once.

In 2011, at the annual conference of the Producers Guild of America, Ralph Winters, who produced several films in the film franchise about a team of mutants from Marvel comics called “X-Men,” shared interesting details from past castings. So, according to him, Jackson was promoted to the role of Charles Xavier, nicknamed Professor X. And in 2017, David Hayter, one of the screenwriters of the first two films about mutants, confirmed, that Michael wanted to play the Professor, and his sister Janet Jackson allegedly could get the role of Thunderstorm (or Storm). As a result, the role of Xavier was played by English actor Patrick Stewart.

In 2012, published by Moviefone it turned out an interview with Stan Lee, in which they discussed both Jackson's desire to buy Marvel and his alleged attempts to bring Lee's creations, Professor X and Spider-Man, to the screen. Below is an excerpt of the conversation.

Moviefone: Last summer at the Producers Guild conference, I heard about the most interesting casting decision that could practically happen: the producers of X-Men revealed that Michael Jackson had been lobbying to be cast as Professor X.

Stan Lee: I was not aware that Michael Jackson wanted to play Professor X. I knew Michael Jackson. Based on the things he discussed with me, I felt like he wanted to play Spider-Man. It was this character that interested him. He never discussed the X-Men with me.

M.F.: Do you think he would cope with the role of Spider-Man?

SL: I think he would be good. I think he would be very good. But I have to say Tobey Maguire was wonderful.

M.F.: I'm amazed that Jackson worked with Stan Lee Media and tried to buy Marvel in the 90s.

SL: Yes, he wanted to. He felt that this was his only way to play Spider-Man. (Laughs.)

M.F.: What do you think the company would have looked like if this deal had gone through then?

SL: I can't imagine how much different it would be, but maybe it wouldn't be as successful. Michael was not a great businessman.

Based on the interview, Jackson's desire to buy Marvel for the role of Spider-Man is just Lee's guess. But that's not the only time he discussed Jackson. Below is an excerpt material 2009, when Lee was at the annual Comic-Con festival in San Diego just a month after the artist's death.

“I was at his house in Neverland. He wanted to do 'Spider-Man,'" Lee said. “I’m not sure if he just wanted to produce or if he wanted to play a role.” Our conversations didn't go that far." When asked if Jackson wanted to play the lead role, Lee replied: “I suspect so. He thought that I would be the person who could provide him with such an opportunity (to create a film about Spider-Man. Ed.), and I told him that I couldn’t.” Lee added: “To achieve his goal, he should have approached Marvel management. We ended up becoming friends and he turned out to be a great guy.”

You can also find a video on the Associated Press YouTube channel where Lee tells roughly the same story: “I met Michael Jackson several times. The first time it was like this: he wanted to talk to me and called me, I agreed to come. He wanted to be Spider-Man, buy the rights to Spider-Man. I think he wanted to play the role of Peter Parker. He never said it, but I understood it. When I told him that I didn't think the company would sell the rights, he wanted to buy all of Marvel. He said, "I'll buy Marvel!" I don't know what happened next. Obviously he didn't buy Marvel, but he really wanted to."

In 2020, Lee's words are partially confirmed and Ty Jackson - Michael's nephew. In an interview on the Popcorned Planet YouTube channel, he was asked if his uncle really wanted to buy the rights to Spider-Man or the entire company. “It was about everything Marvel, I remember that,” Ty replied. “I remember him and my brothers and I talking about buying Marvel. He wanted to do it with Stan Lee, they discussed it more than once. Unfortunately, nothing worked out. I think they weren't allowed to do that. I don’t know the reasons, but they were definitely interested in buying.”

When Ty asked if Michael wanted to buy Marvel to make a Spider-Man movie, he replied that it wasn't just about one superhero: “Besides Spider-Man, he was a big fan of everything Marvel. He knew all the characters. So it wasn't just Spider-Man. But yeah, he probably wanted to be Spider-Man."

So, according to several reputable sources, Jackson did make attempts to buy Marvel. However, both Lee and Jackson's nephew could not remember Michael directly expressing his desire to play Spider-Man. Therefore, most likely, this story will forever remain a legend.

Legend

What do our verdicts mean?

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