When it was announced that Disney was making moves to acquire 20th Century Fox, the internet all but exploded at the prospect of the X-Men and the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally being under the same roof. With the former having evolved into a flagship superhero franchise a full eight years before Iron Man ever launched the MCU, the idea of these two Marvel comic book properties being combined was indeed an intriguing one. Now, however, a leading Marvel Studios figure has slammed the brakes on such speculation – urging caution on the subject, lest audiences set themselves up for disappointment.
Said figure is none other than Kevin Feige, who recently spoke with Vulture to promote the upcoming release of Black Panther, which looks to be another home run for the House of Ideas. When pressed on information relating to when exactly we can expect see the X-Men enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he said that they aren’t even thinking that far ahead right now.
“We’re not thinking about it. We’re focusing on everything we’ve already announced. If and when the deal actually happens, we’ll start to think more about it. Until then, we have a lot to do.”
Vulture just wouldn’t take no for an answer though and when they asked him again for some kind of timeframe, Feige stated that it won’t happen for at least several years.
“It would be years away. We’ve announced everything through 2019, so none of those would be adjusted.”
The producer’s comments here aren’t too surprising and echo what we keep hearing. That being that Marvel’s slate for the immediate future is already set in stone and nothing will be changed to accommodate this new deal with Fox. Yes, the X-Men are headed to the MCU, but it won’t be this year, or next, or anytime soon. At the earliest, some form of crossover would probably take place in 2020. And even then, we imagine it’d only be the studio planting seeds via a small cameo here and there before the eventual team-up film in maybe 2022/2023?
Chalk that all up as speculation for now, of course, given that it’s still very early days for this deal. Sure, Marvel no doubt has some kind of roadmap set up that gives them a rough idea of when they’ll start merging the two franchises (they’re often praised for their excellent planning and foresight, after all), but like Feige says, their focus is elsewhere at the moment. And honestly, that’s perfectly understandable.
In the next year alone we’ll be treated to Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, before 2019 brings about Captain Marvel, Avengers 4 and the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. So again, Marvel is very, very busy right now and though fans can rest assured knowing that one day the X-Men will rub shoulders with the likes of Spidey and T’Challa, they’d be wise not to start hoping for it to happen anytime soon.
