Disney officially announced they bought many of 21st Century Fox’s assets today. The move saw Disney acquire Fox’s intellectual property of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool. The fate of Fox-owned Marvel characters has been a major question for fans since rumors started that Disney was going to buy Fox.
In a new report from ComicBook.com, the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four will join the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The report indicates Disney CEO Bob Iger explained to investors on a conference call that, “We’re also looking forward to expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe to include X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool.“ If this report is true, this is a huge development especially since Iger allegedly said on the same conference call that Deadpool could possibly be part of a new Marvel branded R-Rated films. It’s possible the Marvel branded R-Rated films could be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We’ve suggested Disney and Fox have already been planning to incorporate the X-Men into the MCU with the upcoming X-Men: Dark Phoenix film and Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel. Marvel Studios and Fox have already been collaborating in the X-Men universe with The Gifted. It’s possible we could see The Gifted crossover with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a time travel story. Or we might see the X-Men join the Avengers in Avengers 4. All the rumors point to a time travel story. Or they could make the leap in the upcoming Untitled Deadpool Sequel, Cable is a time traveler after all.
A more likely scenario would be for Disney and Marvel Studios to follow the same blueprint they’ve been using for the Netflix shows. The characters operate in the same world, and certain events from the movies are mentioned in passing in the shows, but they are for all purposes kept separate of each other.
Another blueprint they could follow would be Spider-Man. They could introduce us to brand new actors for the Fantastic Four and include them in a small scene in one of their upcoming movies or film a post credits tease. However, they might also reference them in the Doctor Doom solo film that’s in development.
As for the X-Men and Deadpool, it might be a little tougher to reboot them like Spider-Man since fans absolutely adore Ryan Reynolds take on Deadpool and the X-Men just rebooted themselves in X-Men: Apocalypse. It’s possible we might see them join the Marvel Cinematic Universe through an alternate dimension. Doctor Strange introduced us to the idea and even showed us Dormammu’s fantastical realm. It’s not out of the realm of possibility to see the X-Men operating in a separate dimension or reality from the Avengers. In fact, with Avengers: Infinity War, we just might see the Reality Stone used to incorporate the X-Men and Deadpool.
Even if that’s not the case Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige revealed they have big plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The studio has at least 20 movies planned to incorporate into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s possible some of those movies might have already been drawing up plans to incorporate the X-Men and Fantastic Four.
As we mentioned before this report does somewhat contradict another report indicating Deadpool would be moved into an R-Rated Marvel brand, so we’ll have to take it with a grain of salt. But the possibilities and speculation are sure to continue on how Marvel Studios might incorporate the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool.
I assume Disney will allow Marvel Studios to have some breathing room in order to sort out this new catalog of heroes.
Tell me, what do you think? Will we be seeing a future where Mr. Fantasic is fighting alongside the Avengers? Tell us in the comments below!