Marvel Star Wars crossover hopes dashed by Disney

Since the dawn of Disney's acquisition of companies like Marvel and Lucasfilm, the crossover event seemed inevitable. If you have a company as powerful as Disney and you have some of the biggest IP in entertainment under your umbrella, it only makes sense that you'd consider monetizing any potential for multiversal crossover media. This week, Marvel Studios "What If...?" head writer A.C. Bradley sort of dashed any hopes we had for a TV show or movie with characters from both Marvel and Star Wars universes.

Below you'll see a scene from the TV show "Parks & Recreation" with actor Patton Oswalt in a one-episode guest appearance. In this episode, Oswalt speaks up at a city council meeting and attempts to filibuster a vote. He's prepared a speech which has very little to do with the subject he's filibustering – but is very relevant to what we're speaking about today.

Unfortunate for those fans who wished that this could all be true, Oswalt's crossover event idea will not happen. At least – it won't happen any time soon. So says A.C. Bradley, head writer of the Disney+ show, "What If...?" This Marvel Cinematic Universe television show is sort of like LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales, where our interview with writer Michael Price, where "Once the story elements were set in place, then I'd say I pretty much had free reign in terms of humor, in terms of jokes, in terms of ways to tell those stories."

According to an interview with GamesRadar+, in writing the show "What If...?", A.C. Bradley said there were just two elements were "off limits." One was "anything that the movies or TV shows were already doing."

It doesn't make a lot of sense for a wacky anything-can-happen show to rehash a plot that's already been seen in a Marvel movie or TV show – or will be covered in a Marvel movie or TV show in the near future. The second bit hits us right in the guts.

"Despite my damndest, I was not allowed to use Star Wars characters," said Bradley. "I tried many times – they kept reminding me that Luke Skywalker is not an Avenger."

Other crossovers exist in Disney+, including new Simpsons crossovers with Marvel and Star Wars, as well as TV shows that took advantage of the new IP relatively quickly after acquisition of Marvel and/or Star Wars. The Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb has both Marvel Comics and Star Wars crossover episodes/mini-movies. Those aren't... canonical though... so it's different!