re: How much of a joke is it that Star Wars was ever thought to be equal to Lord of the Rings?

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Bruh come on. Iron Man was was made b/c comic book movies like Spider Man, Fantastic Four, Blade, and X-Men were all successful at the box office. It had frick all to do w/LOTR. You dont need to make shite up.

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Well not the Fantastic Four, but I think yall are underselling how insane the MCU concept was at the time. Like Man of Steel, they did not plan for a DC Universe at that time and people were talking about Bale’s Batman possibly joining when they finally decided to make an expanded universe.

Cinematic universes are taken for granted now, and given how Lord of the Rings, again the second most read novel of the 20th century, struggled to get financing really says a lot. There’s no way they would have gambled the MCU given that Lord of the Rings only got off the ground by the skin of their teeth.