2019 is set to be the biggest year yet for the MCU, and the most important event on the horizon may not have anything to do with the franchise’s upcoming releases but rather the Disney/Fox merger that’s about to come into effect, allowing Marvel Studios access to the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and various other characters that fans have long waited to see share the screen with the Avengers and their ilk.
As a statement made by producer Kevin Feige last month indicated, we could be seeing some X-Men projects go into development within the first six months of the year, and in a red carpet interview last night with MTV, the Marvel Studios head expressed his excitement about the new set of toys they’ll soon have to play with.
“The truth is, I’m excited for all of them,” he said. “I’m excited, and it’s not just the marquee names you know — there are hundreds of names on those documents, on those agreements.”
Feige goes on to stress that this merging of Fox and Disney’s Marvel properties is something that he’s been hoping to see for decades.
“And the fact that Marvel is as close as we may ever get now to having access to all of the characters, is something I’ve been dreaming about for my almost 20 years at Marvel. And it’s very exciting.”
In these comments, you can find an implicit nod to Sony’s various Spider-Man-related properties, with the box office success of Venom giving the studio every reason to hold onto their comic book characters.
Regardless, the Disney/Fox deal is still a huge moment for Marvel Studios that offers the potential for a lot more MCU newcomers than the obvious crowd-pleasers. Nonetheless, given the studio’s tendency to play the long game, it could still be a few years before we see any X-Men on the big screen under the Disney banner, but as the upcoming Avengers: Endgame will likely demonstrate, this cinematic universe currently has enough characters on its plate already.
