Having originally kicked off nearly two decades ago, the X-Men film series is getting ready to say goodbye. Earlier this month, Dark Phoenix (starring Sophie Turner, of Game of Thrones fame) hit theaters worldwide – which is projected to cost Fox over $100 million in losses – and next year, The New Mutants will reach the big screen, which is rumored to be the final entry in the X-Men universe before Disney and Marvel push the reset button.
Of course, fans have, for the longest time, been waiting for the X-Men to make their way to the MCU. The confusing legalities surrounding the mutants being used in Marvel films are enough to make your head spin, but without going into the nitty-gritty details, it looks like the House of Mouse will finally be able to do good on this, ever since Disney purchased 21st Century Fox earlier in the year. Aside from bringing in the mutants though, it seems the MCU will also be able to integrate Deadpool and the Fantastic Four into the mix as well, which is sure to please fans.
Even though Marvel now has access to this new pool of characters, it was far from an official confirmation that the creative team behind the MCU would be interested in making use of them. Thankfully though, it seems initial brainstorming sessions have been ongoing for some time. As MCU Cosmic reports, Kevin Feige confirmed to Fandango that preliminary talks have been taking place for years.
“It’s still early days, but it’s been a fun exercise, and it’s one, by the way, that we’ve been doing for years. Every development meeting starts with cool ideas and fun ideas, and our wheels are always turning in terms of what if… to use a Marvel publishing term. What if we did this? What if we did that? What if we had access to such and such characters? That’s how Spider-Man: Homecoming came together in the first place, and it’s fun to now be in this position with the Fox characters, too, because if we come up with a great “What If” we can actually do it.”
Personally, we’d love to finally see all of these Marvel characters come together as part of one cohesive universe, though with Dark Phoenix‘s recent failure, we wouldn’t be surprised if it’ll be a couple of years before the X-Men make the jump. With recent Fantastic Four casting rumors coming to light though, there’s always the chance we’ll see Reed Richards, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and The Thing on the big screen sooner rather than later.