User blog comment:TheVision185/Avengers Movie: When?/@comment-1895174-20121105004900/@comment-1895174-20121106133359

1) Disney doesn't have a legal leg to stand on at the moment if they want to get those characters back. The only way that's happening is if they wait until FOX's license to make films based off the Fantastic Four franchise expires.  Of course, FOX always has the option to voluntarily return those characters to Disney/Marvel (like what Universal did to Hulk and Lionsgate did with Punisher), but it's not all that likely unless there reboot plans get stalled (like what happened with Daredevil).

On the bright side, it looks like the rights to those characters will expire soon anyway if FOX doesn't start production on that reboot fast. It seems like the Marvel licensed the film rights to their characters in a way that expires after about seven years of inactivity. Blade, which hasn't had a movie since 2004's Blade: Trinity, returned to Marvel in 2011, and Daredevil, which hasn't had a movie since 2005's Elektra, returned to Marvel less than a month ago. If FOX doesn't make significant progress on rebooting the Fantastic Four franchise soon, Disney may get the rights to those characters back by 2014.