The Disney-owned Marvel movie brand was conspicuously absent from plans to rehabilitate Hollywood Studios. Although Disney bought Marvel in 2009 for $4 billion, the Florida theme park rights to Marvel characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk and Captain America continue to be held by Universal under a long-term contract.
Asked in an interview in July if Universal would ever sell those rights, Thomas L. Williams, Universal’s theme park chairman, answered with one word: “No.”