The new Chinese superheroes could end up in future Marvel movies.
Marvel Comics is teaming up with Chinese internet giant NetEase to create new Chinese superheroes to join the Marvel Universe.
The agreement will also see 12 Marvel comics including Spider-Man, Captain America, and Guardians of the Galaxy become officially available on NetEase’s comics platform.
The deal was announced by Disney China and NetEase in Shanghai on Friday and confirmed on the official Marvel and NetEase Comics social media accounts.
Chinese comic book artist “Keng,” Zhou Liefen (周烈焚), and playwright Shui Zhu (水珠) are already working on creating the new characters, according to Chinese entertainment news site Mtime.
Disney and Marvel are already hugely popular in China and any new intellectual property created could feasibly end up feeding future Marvel movies.
In May last year, Joe and Anthony Russo, the directing duo behind Marvel Studios’ blockbuster Captain America franchise, signed on with a Chinese production firm to create an original Chinese superhero trilogy.
Then, in September last year, Marvel Comics great Stan Lee announced he was entering the Chinese film market by co-creating a new superhero movie character, Monkey Master.
The NetEase deal marks the first official project to create Chinese superheroes for the Marvel Universe.
