Michael Jackson REALLY wanted to buy Marvel in the 90s

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Michael Jackson was known for many things during his lifetime. He was arguably one of the greatest entertainers of all-time, he was a tad bit eccentric & alleged aspects of his personal life may have tainted an otherwise epic music legacy. The list could probably go on but Michael Jackson also tried to make a lot of big moves in the 80s and 90s outside the world of music. Most of these involved going for various film roles that ranged from Peter Pan in Steven Spielberg's HOOK to Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's remake of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Also, public knowledge, revealed by Stan Lee, is that Michael Jackson tried to buy Marvel in the 90s and Jackson's nephew Taj Jackson, is confirming some of those details.

Taj Jackson was a guest on "Popcorn Planet" and during the interview, the matter of Michael Jackson trying to buy Marvel was addressed. Although Jackson was adamant to get the deal done, mostly due to his fondness of the character of Spider-Man, his nephew says the deal never gained any real traction:

"It was Marvel and I remember that. I remember being with my brothers and him talking about purchasing Marvel. He wanted to do that with Stan Lee. They had been talking and discussing that. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, I think they were shut down from doing that. I don't know the reasons why but they were adamantly in the process of doing that."

Back in the 90s, Marvel was under deep financial strain and the company actually filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Also going on in the 90s was the steady decline of Michael Jackson who was nowhere near the God-like success he achieved in the 80s thanks to his "Thriller" & "Bad" albums. The performer had come under fire for child sexual abuse allegations several years prior and this began to complicate his influence in the industry. Despite all of this, Jackson still wanted Marvel and the big rumor was that he REALLY wanted it for rights to Spider-Man, as he supposedly wanted to play the character on screen. Jackson's nephew also touches on the rumor in the interview:

"Besides Spider-Man, he was a huge Marvel fan. He knew all the characters. So it was not only Spider-Man [he wanted to buy]. But yeah, he probably wanted to be Spider-Man."

Spider-Man would ultimately come to the big screen in 2002 with Sam Raimi taking on directing duties and Tobey Maguire getting to be everyone's friendly neighborhood web-slinger. The film was a massive success and helped push Marvel into the big leagues in terms of adapting their work for film while also likely making it possible for what we now know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe to come to fruition. Taj Jackson believes his uncle would be happy with how it all turned out in the end:

"He would be so excited about it. He was such a movie buff in that way that I think he would have thought this is the greatest thing since sliced bread, all these characters coming together."

I'm trying to imagine this alternate universe where Michael Jackson would've been in control of Marvel and I'm about 99.9% sure it wouldn't be the $22 billion worldwide box office grosser it is today. I would also hope that someone would've checked his ego and told him he had no business playing Spider-Man but I have a feeling, under his control, we would've gotten a very different cinematic introduction to the character. 

Can YOU imagine a world where Michael Jackson actually owned Marvel?