Last week, Disney registered two new production companies: Solve Everything Productions and Grass-Fed Productions. On the surface, there’s not much to be excited about as this is a pretty run of the mill procedure for the world’s largest entertainment studio; however, looking at the surface isn’t what we do here and a deeper look into these two newly registered production companies has stirred up some exciting possibilities about some potential future MCU projects!
Before continuing on, understand that as of publication, there was no evidence to confirm that either of these two production companies were for Marvel Studios projects. I contacted several sources and went down some well-beaten paths but was unable to find the type of confirmation I’m happy with. Despite that, there are reasons to believe that these could be Marvel Studios projects and ones we already know to be in development. Papers have been filed for production companies for every project announced last summer by Marvel Studios (either at SDCC or D23) with the exception of two: Fantastic Four and Blade. As you’ll see, it’s very possible that is no longer the case.
For Marvel Comics fans, especially those who have followed Jonathan Hickman’s career, the phrase “solve everything” points in one very specific direction: that of Marvel Comics first family, the Fantastic Four. In October of 2008, Hickman launched his run on Fantastic Four with a three-issue arc (570-572) titled Solve Everything. The story, which began in earnest earlier that year with Dark Reign: Fantastic Four, sees a guilt-ridden Reed build a machine, The Bridge, which allows him to observe the multiverse in search of solutions to the problems for which he feels responsible. After The Bridge endangers the team, Sue asks Reed to tear it down. Before doing so, Reed finds that similar Bridges have been built on other Earths and makes contact with individuals he later comes to understand are his multiversal counterparts: the Council of Reeds. Reed keeps his promise to Susan and tears down the machine only to rebuild it later and hide it in his Room of 100 ideas. Upon firing the Bridge back up, Reed meets the Council again and asks them how to solve his 101st question: how to solve everything.
As on-the-nose as Solve Everything is, Grass-Fed Productions is not. Keep in mind that, as mentioned above, there’s no hard evidence that these are Marvel Studios productions, so in trying to match this up with a potential property, I stretched about as far as Reed did during Hickman’s run. That said, I’m happy to toss out a couple of ideas and explain the trains of thought I had in arriving at those conclusions.
It’s Blade
As mentioned in the intro, there are only two announced Marvel Studios properties for which we don’t currently have a production company. If we buy the conclusion that Solve Everything is Fantastic Four, that means we just have Blade. If we follow that logic, then Grass-Fed is the production company for Blade. It isn’t good enough for the burden of proof for that conclusion to be “because Blade doesn’t have one”, so the question to ask is, “does Grass-Fed fit Blade?”. Actually, it just might. In just about every modern vampire story, vamps look at humans as livestock or cattle. It’s possible that Marvel Studios has capitalized on that notion here and chosen Grass-Fed as a reference to the prey of whichever vampire(s) they choose to feature.
It’s Secret Invasion
If Blade was hard to believe, you won’t like this one. While I feel like Blade is the more likely option, it’s entirely possible that it is something else entirely (including a non-MCU property). But if we’re looking for MCU properties that have a connection, no matter how loose, to Grass-Fed, Secret Invasion is on the table. This is a project about which we know very little and one that, as of a month or two ago, was in the earliest stages of development, but the idea that it’ll almost certainly have to do with Skrulls undetected on Earth provides a potential Grass-Fed connection.
9 out of 10 fictional pollsters agree that when they hear grass-fed the animal that first comes to mind is a cow. As all good comic book fans know, Skrulls were first introduced in Fantastic Four #2 and spent some time impersonating the group before being captured, hypnotized and kept prisoner on Earth as…cows (remember kids, Skrull cows go moo, too). So, if Marvel Studios was being incredibly clever and trying to hide the development of this IP, this would be one of about 10,000 possible ideas.
These two ideas only work if we accept the premise (which is, as of now, nothing more than speculation) that these are Marvel Studios projects in development which, at this point in time, we cannot prove. If they are, we can look a little further into what this might mean but until we get some more proof, disseminate this information responsibly.
