“What? I thought there were only two? And we don’t even know what the second film is and we’re getting a third?”
Relax. Relax. This will not be a Marvel Studios film. Marvel is owned by another movie studio, remember?
Big Hero 6 will likely be the first foray of Marvel Comics characters into the world of Disney Animation. This is the same arm of Disney that will be releasing Wreck-It-Ralph this year and Frozen next year.
The Blue Sky Disney blog confirmed an earlier rumor that the adaptation is in the pipeline, although not fully green lit as of yet.
Big Hero 6 is a Japanese superhero team that was created by Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau in 1998 in the pages of Alpha Flight. It was later reimagined in a Manga style by Chris Claremont and David Nakayama in a 2008 miniseries. I’d wager a bet that the latter will be the inspiration for the kid friendly film.
One of Marvel’s more obscure teams (even though they have had two miniseries to their name, they haven’t appeared much outside of that), the fact that Big Hero 6 is getting a film means that Disney wasn’t joking about wanting to get their hands on Marvel for their deep pool of intellectual property.
So, who is on the team? Well, in the comics, one of the members was Silver Samurai. Since he’s going to be a villain in The Wolverine, he won’t be showing. Another X-Man, Sunfire, was once leader of the group, but, being a mutant, the rights to him are also owned by Fox.
What we are left with are heroes based on Manga archetypes with names such as GoGo Tomago and Wasabi-No-Ginger and team members that include a 13-year-old genius with a giant robot bodyguard and a girl whose super powers come from her purse.
