Although the tantalizingly close release of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR is obviously looming large on the minds of everyone at Marvel Studios right about now, they've got plenty of other future Marvel Cinematic Universe projects to worry about as well, including ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, CAPTAIN MARVEL, AVENGERS 4, SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING 2, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, and that's just what's been officially confirmed. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has years worth of MCU projects rattling around in that head of his, but those of you hoping that some of those ideas include The Fantastic Four or The X-Men are likely to be disappointed.
With Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox likely to close next summer, the company will soon gain control of a variety of franchises, which includes the film rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters. Although it's only a matter of time before Kevin Feige puts them to work in the MCU, the Marvel Studios honcho told The Playlist that they're still a handful of years out from officially bringing those characters home.
No, because any of that deal would take a while to get going and years from whenever and if ever it happens. So, certainly it won’t impact the five movies we’ve announced, and it probably wouldn’t impact anything for a handful of years after that. Because really, we’re not thinking about that. We’re thinking of delivering on what we promised. Any movie, especially for any characters we don’t have the rights to yet until someone tells us we do, would be even further after that.
Likely a wise movie, especially as the deal hasn't been finalized, but it looks like you shouldn't get your hopes up in regards to X-Men of Fantastic Four joining the MCU until Phase 5, at the earliest. Kevin Feige repeated as much while speaking with Coming Soon, but added that THOR could serve as a hint as to how they plan on bringing characters like The X-Men into the MCU. "You’re right, it’s too far out to talk about whether it will happen of not. We’re not working on it in any way, shape or form. We’ve got five films on the docket we’ve already announced that are taking a big percent of our time," Feige said. "But I will say to your very good question that if you look back to Phase 1 and after “Iron Man” was released and we announced our upcoming films, one of which was “Thor,” people said, “How in the WORLD can you bring in a Norse god who flies with a hammer into the world you’ve established of Tony Stark and Stark Industries?” That was sort of the reason we made the “Thor” film the way we did, was to ease character into a world together, even though they might not understand each other and might have trouble getting along at first, that’s the fun of it. But tonally there’s always a way, and as you said the comics have been navigating it quite well for half a century." I'm pretty sure we're game for whatever you can throw at us at this point.
The official synopsis for AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR:
An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR will hit theaters on April 27th.