The Disney-Fox acquisition is done and dusted. The likes of Fantastic Four, Deadpool and the X-Men are back home at Marvel Studios (owned by Disney) where they belong.
Since the announcement of this business deal a couple of years ago, fans have been salivating at the prospect of seeing their favourite Marvel comics characters like Wolverine and Doctor Doom be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Could we also see Professor X and his band of mutants take on the likes of Captain America, Iron Man and Black Panther in an X-Men vs The Avengers storyline? Anything’s possible now!
However, it looks like fans will need to pump the brakes a little bit. In an interview with i09, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige mentioned that they’ve been working on a post-Endgame five-year plan for a while now, even before there were rumblings about Disney acquiring Fox.
“It’ll be a while. It’s all just beginning and the five year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of that was set. So really it’s much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back. But it will be a very long time.”
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. After all, Marvel Studios has already announced projects like Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and Black Panther 2. But here’s what Feige had to say about the next five years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
“The slate that we’re building over the next five years [is] not apples to apples. It is two very distinct things and I hope they’ll feel very distinct. But there is a similar mentality going into it, which is ‘How can we continue to tell stories with some of the characters that audiences already know and love in a unique way, in a different way, in surprising way, of which we have a lot of plans and ideas and work already going into it?’ [Then] ‘How can we introduce new characters that even hardcore fans, comic fans, have barely known or barely heard of.’ That’s really exciting too.”
While this can be slightly infuriating for those of us who desperately want to see the likes of Reed Richards and Human Torch be incorporated into the MCU as soon as possible, it’s important that we remember to exercise patience. After all, Feige and Marvel Studios took their time to establish this expansive universe brick by brick film by film and it has paid off so far.
(Source: i09)
