Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite Won’t Include Any X-Men, Developers Think You’ve Forgotten About Them

It’s been a few years since fans have gotten their hands on a new Marvel Vs. Capcom game, and with the Marvel Cinematic Universe as popular as ever, it seems like Capcom made the correct decision to announce Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite, which is set to release later this year.

While the reactions to the game’s announcement have been generally positive, some fans have lodged their complaints with the roster of playable characters. Specifically, unlike previous entries in the series, which usually included a handful of X-Men, MvC: Infinite is completely devoid of them. Instead, the Marvel side of the roster has been filled out with new fighters such as Captain Marvel, Black Panther and Ultron.

As you might expect, Capcom has been relatively silent over the lack of any mutants, though in a recent interview with Gamespot, producer Michael Evans did shed some light on the process of building the roster. While he wouldn’t talk about the X-Men directly (more on that later), he did go so far as to say that the modern fan might not remember them as well as some of the more popular or upcoming characters from Marvel movies.

“…we talked with Marvel very closely about their future roadmap, about what’s gonna be happening. Your modern Marvel fan, maybe they don’t even remember some of the X-Men characters, but they know some of the Guardians characters or Black Panther. You know what I mean? Captain Marvel may seem like a strange pick, but she’s fantastic. She fits the gameplay. She fits the story, and they’re gonna be really pushing her as a strong female lead all the way up into the movie. We’re trying to take everything into account and choose the best characters.”

So, what’s the real reason that for the absence of the X-Men? Well, many assume it has to do with the movies. Specifically, Fox owns film rights for the the X-Men characters, which is why you’ve yet to see them pop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This could be a possible explanation as to why they’re absent here, and the same logic can be applied to the Fantastic Four, whose movie rights are also owned by Fox.

Still, even if you won’t be able to play as any of the X-Men, there will be plenty of fighters to choose from when Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite launches on September 19th, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PCs.