In 2019, Disney officially completed its acquisition and merger with 20th Century Fox, one of the biggest such mergers in entertainment history. Seven years later, Marvel Studios has yet to take full advantage of having obtained the live-action rights to the X-Men and all the assorted heroes and villains that came in the deal. That’s all about to change, however.
Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier has been tasked with shepherding the Children of the Atom into the MCU and has indicated a desire to create an extensive Mutant Saga. Now, in wide-ranting interview about the future of the MCU, Kevin Feige has revealed just how big those X-Men plans could ultimately be.
I think that, obviously, first things first: We have to make one great movie. But we always have an eye as we’re talking about it too. What are the different places this can go? What are the places that [have] been in the comics? What hasn’t been explored as much, and how can that be incorporated? And what are some of the different avenues that we could take that feel like the kind of less-trodden path that we could go down? But those ideas are always out there, as we have the discussions.
-Jake Schreier
When asked by Weibo about the future of the MCU beyond Avengers: Secret Wars, Feige again confirmed that the X-Men “will be at its core“ and teased a timeline that extends out to 2042.
“Acquiring the X-Men rights isn’t just about… for example, Wolverine is an outstanding character, and we were able to team him up with Deadpool, which is great,” said Feige “But the X-Men are far more than just Wolverine, far more than the original team; fundamentally, it’s a universe, a multi-stage saga.“
“Much of that is what we’re working towards.We were just in a Marvel Studios meeting room,” he continued, “planning movies all the way up to 2042.Whether we can make it to 2042? Who knows? Will it be those movies? Who knows? But this is how we approach and plan the vast amount of potential stories in the comics.”
Having previously revealed a post-Multiverse Saga slate that ran through 2032, Feige’s update would seem to indicate that the studio plans to use the live-action rights to the characters wisely rather than focusing on a small group of characters like Fox did in their films.
“We’re constantly changing, constantly evolving, but having some guidance helps us act more purposefully… especially with X-Men—it’s already had 10 movies, some very, very good, some I think haven’t lived up to expectations—how do we plan the “mutant saga” in a very grand way?“
Should the studio be able to pull it off, a Mutant Saga extending a decade or more would be truly astonishing.
Source: Weibo
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