It’s going to be a long time before we see a proper MCU X-Men movie. While the full stable of mutants will eventually be part of the franchise, Marvel Studios have correctly decided that the property could use a rest. This will make The New Mutants the final entry in Fox’s X-Universe, so while we’ll see minor X-Men elements popping up here and there in the MCU, don’t expect an announcement anytime soon. But just because the MCU won’t be using the mutants, that doesn’t mean the IP is entirely dormant.
Venerable insider Jeremy Conrad seems to think there’s something on the cards that’ll be announced soon. The first inkling came when Disney+ added a bunch of X-Men account icons to the service. This led him to do some digging, and he’s now reporting that there’s some kind of announcement due. It’s pretty certain though that it won’t be a new live-action adaptation (TV or movie) or even a Disney+ digital release of The New Mutants.
The current thinking is that it may be that the platform will soon see some of the Fox X-Men movies added to the service. Disney+ has just launched in the UK and included X-Men: Days of Future Past in the launch lineup. The movie’s unavailable on the domestic version though, so at least some of them may be coming soon.
However, it’s unlikely that The New Mutants (which was supposed to hit cinemas tomorrow) will get a surprise launch on Disney+. Apparently, HBO has a long-standing deal for the rights to stream more recent X-Men movies like Josh Boone’s aforementioned pic and Dark Phoenix, which doesn’t expire until 2022. So, if it’s going to land anywhere, it’ll be there.
The other option might be that the full 90s X-Men animated series will soon hit Disney+. The creators of the show have been pitching a revival to the Mouse House, so putting the series up to gain some new fans would be a smart move. In addition, the account icons added are of the 90s X-Men designs, which could be a further hint that the cartoon is coming.
But right now nothing is certain. My bet is to expect some kind of announcement by the end of this week, though.