There was a lot of excitement amongst Marvel fans this past December when it was announced that The Walt Disney Company is set to acquire 20th Century Fox’s film assets, which includes the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises.
Naturally this opens the door for Marvel Studios to bring the mutants and the First Family into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the deal isn’t expected to be finalised until next year, and it seems we may have a few years to wait beyond that before we can expect see the likes of Wolverine and Reed Richards alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
“Any of that deal would take a while to get going and years from whenever and if ever it happens,” Feige told The Playlist. “So, certainly it won’t impact the five movies we’ve announced, and it probably wouldn’t impact anything for a handful of years after that. Because really, we’re not thinking about that. We’re thinking of delivering on what we promised. Any movie, especially for any characters we don’t have the rights to yet until someone tells us we do, would be even further after that.”
Feige has recently revealed that Marvel intends on announcing its Phase Four slate next year after Avengers 4, and one would assume that the studio already has a fairly solid idea about its next slate of movies. However, as we saw with Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming when Spider-Man became available, Marvel is more than willing to change it ups plans when opportunities arise.
How would you integrate the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU? Would you jump straight in with solo movies? A Secret Wars-style event? Let us know in the comments below…
