Marvel use ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT to take a dig at FOX

After a long wait, the fourth season of Arrested Development was yesterday released in its entirety through Netflix, to the joy of its dedicated and growing fan base. One plotline, however, will have been particularly appreciated by frequenters of Comicbookmovie; a dig at FOX over the Fantastic Four rights dispute.

The plotline in question takes place in the fifth episode of the season (entitled “A New Start”), in which we learn of one character’s brief appearance as the star of a low budget version of The Fantastic Four, rushed into existence after “a drunk lawyer reminded [the studio] they’d lose the rights if they didn’t make the film in the next six days”.

This echoes the fact that FOX are contractually obliged make a Fantastic Four movie every six years, and that their announcement last year that a new adaptation was going into production has been viewed by many as a hurried and cynical decision in order to retain the rights to the franchise.

The result in the show is poorly acted, poorly scripted, with terrible special effects and set design, the implication being that FOX’s rushed project will fare no better.

As with many jokes in Arrested Development, context is everything. FOX famously shafted the show throughout its original run, airing episodes out of order, frequently changing its position on the schedule, and eventually cancelling it. Bitterness towards the studio can frequently be found in throwaway lines and subtle jokes in the original three seasons- a sentiment shared by Marvel, according to recent insider reports. The rights were sold to Netflix for the production of the fourth season.

Although FOX own theatrical rights to the F4, Marvel retain television and animation rights to all of their properties. The result of this is Marvel using an ex-FOX property and a current FOX property as weapons with which to attack FOX.