Don’t Expect To See the X-Men in the MCU Until At Least 2021

Marvel Studios may have built a massively successful shared movie universe off the backs off relatively unknown characters, but Disney’s acquisition of Fox could finally bring the X-Men to the MCU. The most well known Marvel characters have always been Spider-Man and several members of the X-Men, but when they were acquired by Disney, Marvel Studios had sold off the rights to most of their most recognizable faces, only ones that were far less popular with mainstream audiences. Nevertheless, Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit the ground running.When the Avengers finally hit the big screen in 2012, it wasn’t only impressive because it was the first big team-up of its nature, but also because it was done with characters many saw as Marvel’s B-squad. While the X-Men and Spider-Man both had a number of big hits, a few critical failures (and the repeated false starts of the Fantastic Four) have always had fans begging for their return to Marvel, confident the perennially successful MCU would provide the best live-action versions of these characters yet.Related: Which Studios Own the Rights to Marvel’s Characters?Spider-Man: Homecoming served as proof that this was the case. Marvel Studios reached a deal with Sony allowing for Spidey’s inclusion in the MCU, and while the movie’s financial performance didn’t hit the same highs as the Sam Raimi movies, general consensus is that Tom Holland’s younger Peter Parker is the most comic accurate seen on screen yet, with his inclusion in movies like Civil War or Infinity War simply serving as a cherry on top.The success of Spider-Man’s MCU reboot renewed cries for Marvel Studios to get back the rights for the X-Men (and Fantastic Four), which is now going to officially happen when Disney acquires 20th Century Fox. Needless to say, fans are excited to see the mutants, both old and new, and Marvel’s First Family in the MCU, looking around every corner for a surprise introduction; however, acquisitions are not simple things, and fans might be waiting for these characters to appear on screen together for longer than some seem to think.This Page: Don’t Expect a Surprise Introduction of the X-Men

Don’t Expect a Surprise Introduction of the X-Men

The second news of the talks between Disney and 20th Century Fox broke, fans immediately jumped to speculate about how the X-Men could ultimately arrive. Time travel? Dimensional hopping? A total reboot of one or both universe after Infinity War and Dark Phoenix? Ever since the ending of Iron Man when Nick Fury appears in a post-credits scene to talk about the Avengers initiative, and even more so since the ending of The Avengers when fans first saw Thanos’s giant smile, the idea of major surprise reveals has always been front of mind when it comes to new characters entering the MCU, but unfortunately that’s not how the MCU works anymore.

The popularity of the franchise has led to much greater scrutiny on each movie’s production, meaning this doesn’t happen like it used to. If we knew as much about Marvel’s future plans as we do now, there’s no way things like Thanos or Fury would have been surprises, and big time cameos are often spoiled ahead of time by casting news or set photos. So it’s doubtful that the X-Men will have any sort of surprise introduction, it will likely be something that sees a big announcement and reasonable fanfare like Spider-Man in Civil War.

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Recent news of both Dark Phoenix and New Mutants getting pushed back for massive reshoots has led to even more speculation: could this be to add MCU connective tissue? While the options for their eventual inclusion are nearly endless, the one thing that’s clear is that it won’t be for a few years. Marvel Studios doesn’t actually own the rights to the X-Men or Fantastic Four yet, and because of the complications of corporate mergers, they’re likely going to be hands-off entirely until the deal is finalized.

Nevertheless, X-Men and F4 have people excited. Marvel just brought in Spider-Man, and there was a fairly quick turnaround, but that’s a different situation. Bringing the X-Men in is far less straightforward and won’t happen nearly as quickly.

Marvel Can’t Use the X-Men Yet

Disney doesn’t own Fox yet. The deal was announced a while ago, but it’s still quite a way from completion. This means that Marvel Studios doesn’t have the rights to use X-Men characters yet, and it will likely stay that way until the merger is complete. The two companites can’t begin sharing assets just because a deal is underway, and any agreement to trade or sell assets, as would happen under any other circumstances, is made even more complicated by the nature of the pending merger.

Under any other circumstances, it might not be as problematic for Marvel to begin adapting plans and writing up scripts to bring in Wolverine, Professor X, or Jean Grey into the MCU, but since those plans relate to the use of Fox’s assets, and the Fox acquisition is still underway, Disney would find itself in hot water and subject to fines, possibly even ruining the entire acquisition, costing them over $2.5 billion for nothing.

Related: Will Infinity War Undo Major Phase 3 Development?

That might seem strange because of how easy the negotiations were to get Spider-Man from Sony, translating into a Spider-Man appearance and solo movie relatively quickly, but the situation with Sony was entirely different. There was no looming acquisition of Sony, meaning the deal for Spider-Man could be far more straightforward. Because of the acquisition process with Fox, a similar rights sharing agreement would be much more complicated to negotiate, and could even slow down or otherwise negatively impact the rest of the merger.

Without any rights sharing agreements in place, Marvel Studios isn’t only prevented from having an X-Men character or reference pop up in an MCU or vice versa, but they aren’t even allowed to make any plans to do so. So any X-Men or Fantastic 4 post-credits scenes and the like that so many fans are eager to see couldn’t simply be left undone with the script and costumes waiting for the deal to close before shooting, as that would also be a major violation. The day the merger is finalized is the first day Disney and Marvel Studios can even consider making plans official plans for the Fox Marvel characters.

So, When Will We See the X-Men in the MCU?

Before Disney can even start working with these characters, the deal needs to close. Unfortunately, massive companies like Disney and Fox don’t move fast, especially when wading through US legal code to get it done. After the deal was announced, Disney expected the regulatory review of the acquisition to be approved and closed within 12 to 18 months, and work to begin incorporating X-Men and Fantastic Four can’t even begin before that, so we can expect the first projects to utilize new characters to start development in early to mid 2019.

Update: the deal is now expected to be finalized by Summer 2019, so the later range of these estimates is most likely.

After that, it’ll likely be another year or so at the least until the characters appear in a movie. For reference, after Marvel Studio got access to Spider-Man rights, it was another 15 months before Spider-Man made an appearance in a minor role in Civil War, a movie already in production when the deal was made, so a similar timeline puts the first X-Men or Fantastic 4 appearance in the MCU well into 2020 or later.

Related: MCU Theory: Captain Marvel Is In An Alternate Timeline

That doesn’t mean smaller Easter eggs, cameos, or references can’t be done, though. Just a few months after the Spider-Man deal, Ant-Man may have already been dropping obscure Easter eggs, with references to a guy that œcrawls on walls. It can be expected that anything of this nature will likely manifest mostly in Marvel using words like “mutant” (a longstanding issue with the rights division), or referencing things like Adamantium. As far as cameos go, that’s wholly dependent on whether roles will be recast. It would be great to have Patrick Stewart or James McCavoy pop up as Charles Xavier, but the implications of such a move are far-reaching, and if Marvel plans to get different actors to play the X-Men, then that’s an even longer process.

With this timeline, there’s no knowing how Marvel Studios will utilize the X-Men or Fantastic 4 in the MCU, because the only Marvel Studios movie on the radar in 2020 or later is Guardians of the Galaxy 3. It wouldn’t be a shock if James Gunn is excited to incorporate the Shi’ar, or have the Guardians have a little run-in with the Starjammers, but when it comes to the classic Earth-based heroes, or an MCU Wolverine, fans may be waiting as long as 2021 or longer.

Needless to say, fans have already waited a long time, so a few more years is just a drop in the bucket, but after seeing the potential of a movie like Infinity War, which is set to bring together over 76 characters, including over 40 characters in the movie’s biggest action scene, it’s understandable why some fans would be antsy to see the X-Men and Fantastic 4 join the fray. Marvel Studios intends to get the rights back for all their characters, so it seems a near certainty that it will happen eventually, but fans may not want to get their hopes up for any major universal twists in Infinity War or Dark Phoenix. But keep your fingers crossed for Phase 4!

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