In the early 1990s, Michael Jackson had plans to buy Marvel to play its most famous superhero, Spider-Man, in a film adaptation. He discussed his plans with none other than the creator of the superhero, Stan Lee, who was a friend of Jackson. However, his plans never materialized. According to one rumor, Jackson may have played a role in Sony acquiring the rights to the character from Marvel.
This rumor suggests that Sony was supposed to give the role of Uncle Ben in the Tobey Maguire-led film to the Smooth Criminal artist. However, Sony couldn’t cast him in the role and instead gave him a cameo role of Agent M in Men in Black II.
Michael Jackson May Have Kicked Off The Events That Led To MCU v. SSMU Over Spider-Man
Michael Jackson had eyes for Marvel’s web-slinging superhero for a long time. Spider-Man was just one of the few characters the legendary pop artist wanted to play in his acting career. He approached Stan Lee in the early ’90s intending to acquire the rights of Spider-Man from Marvel. While Jackson never said it outright, Stan Lee believed that the Dangerous artist wanted to play Peter Parker in the films.
When Stan Lee shared that the company wouldn’t sell its best superhero character, Jackson responded that he would buy the entire company if needed. However, that deal didn’t happen despite Marvel filing for bankruptcy in 1996 and selling off its major characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. Stan Lee shared with Associated Press in 2009:
“He wanted to be Spider-Man. To buy the rights to Spider-Man. I think he wanted to play the part of Peter Parker. He never said that, but I gathered that. When I told him I don’t think the company would sell it, he then wanted to buy Marvel. He said ‘Then I’ll buy Marvel!’. I don’t know what happened, I mean, obviously he didn’t buy Marvel, but he wanted to, very much.”
According to YouTuber & comedian Troy Bond, Michael Jackson played a big part in Sony buying the Spider-Man rights from Marvel. At the time, Jackson owned half of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which later turned into Sony Music Publishing. Bond further claimed that Jackson wanted to play another Spider-Man character in Sony’s film adaptation. Jackson rumoredly wanted to play the character of Uncle Ben, originally played by late actor Cliff Robertson.
The YouTuber also shared that Jackson had a contract with Sony to put him in one of their movies, which resulted in his role in Men In Black II. These claims of the comedian should be taken with a grain of salt as they have not been verified by Sony or Jackson’s representatives. If these claims hold true, Michael Jackson may have even started the on-again, off-again feud between Sony and Marvel over Spider-Man.
Michael Jackson Also Eyed Several Other Roles
In the ’90s and early 2000s, Michael Jackson pursued several roles in big-budget films that never came to fruition. Troy Bond shared that Jackson wanted to portray the role of Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He was even willing to put on full prosthetic makeup for the role. Jackson visited Fox Studio to meet X-Men director Bryan Singer to ask him for the role of Professor Charles Xavier (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Jackson actively lobbied for the role of The Riddler in Joel Schumacher‘s Batman Forever (via ScreenRant). However, Schumacher believed that Jackson didn’t fit his vision and chose Jim Carrey instead. Schumacher was not the first Batman director he met with, as he also approached Tim Burton for the lead role in Edward Scissorhands (via Marca).
The King of Pop only had a few acting credits to his name, debuting with his performance as Scarecrow in the film, The Wiz.
Sony’s Spider-Man films are now available for streaming on Disney+.
