The Disney/Fox deal has led to a whole load of speculation on when and how Marvel might start introducing their newly acquired properties to the MCU. And while the production house is staying vague on the matter, those hoping that Avengers: Endgame might tease the inevitable X-Men or Fantastic Four reboot may want to pump their brakes.
In an interview with ComicBook.com, co-director Joe Russo was asked if it would’ve been possible to shoot a scene involving the Fox characters, and his answer was a decisive no.
“It would not have been,” Russo said “That deal didn’t actually officially close until a week and a half ago. It would not have been logistically possible.”
Indeed, Marvel is known to play the long game when it comes to introducing new characters and corners of the MCU. And with only a few weeks between the deal closing and Endgame coming out, the Russo Brothers would’ve been cutting it awfully close if they were to shoot any new scenes. Nonetheless, Anthony Russo offered his assurance that “we’ll get there,” before Joe Russo added, “we’ll get to Secret Wars one day.”
The Russos have expressed an interest in adapting Secret Wars a few times previously, though never in a way that suggested they were particularly serious about the idea. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige claimed in a recent interview with io9 that it’ll be “a very long time” before we see any X-Men in the MCU, explaining that they already had the franchise’s next five years planned out before the deal closed.
In any case, while you shouldn’t expect to see Wolverine or the Fantastic Four show up in Avengers: Endgame, the Russo Brothers will still be juggling an overwhelming array of characters from the last eleven years of superhero cinema. And we’ll find out how the pair manage to bring some closure to the current MCU era when the film hits theaters on April 26th.