Kevin Feige: It will take longer than expected for X-Men Appear In The MCU
In the Marvel comic books, the X-Men and Avengers are longtime allies and occasional foes. But for two-and-a-half decades the two groups of superheroes haven’t been allowed to share the big screen.
Recently, the 15-months-in-the-making deal pulled 20th Century Fox’s characters under the Disney umbrella. It opened up the possibility of characters such as Wolverine and Magneto sharing the screen with Iron Man and Captain America.
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When Marvel Sold X-Men to Fox
In 1993, a financially impoverished Marvel sold the rights of the X-Men to 20th Century Fox. The deal also made Marvel to cede rights of the Fantastic Four to Fox and Spider-Man to Sony. When Marvel Studios began to produce its own movies with Iron Man in 2008. Still, with the help of Disney — which acquired Marvel Studios in 2009 — the studio produced 20 movies. The Marvel Cinematic Universe became the most profitable franchise in film history.
When asked about the Disney/Fox merger effect on the X-Men, Kevin said,”Marvel has been working on its five-year plan before any of that was set. Really it’s… less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back.” said Kevin.
Disney and Fox have officially merged, Marvel Studios has access to members of the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an interview,“Now Disney will have access to some of the best villains in comics, many with more complex motivations than simply “because they’re evil.”. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.” Directors of the Avengers universe, recently said,” we are certain that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is going to incorporate those characters under the large Marvel umbrella.”
In an interview with io9, the producer explained “It’s all just beginning and the five-year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of that was set. So really it’s much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back. But it will be a very long time.”
Future of Marvel and X-Men
Several theories have already been rumoured around about how the X-Men could enter the MCU. Deadpool is also now part of the Disney family which was previously owned by Fox. The plans on continuing the Deadpool movies under the Fox banner are in talks. Yet the future of the X Men series looks ominous. The only two films on the calendar – Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants – have been delayed, with the latter’s release still in doubt.
While Marvel Studios hasn’t officially announced any projects beyond 2019. We already have a fairly good idea of how the next few years are likely to look. 2020, for instance, is expected to see the release of the long-awaited Black Widow solo movie, followed by The Eternals. After that, Black Panther and Doctor Strange are both said to have sequels headed for release in 2021, along with a Shang-Chi solo film. Lastly, 2022 is thought to be the year of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, though when you look beyond James Gunn’s heavily delayed threequel, things start to get a little hazy.
Marvel still has to bring the MCU’s current era to a close with the release of Avengers: Endgame on April 26th.
