While the Disney/Fox deal only just came into effect today, Marvel fans have already spent many months fantasizing about future MCU projects featuring the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. But as a recent article from The Hollywood Reporter stresses, it could still be a few more years before we see these new acquisitions on the big screen.
In an interview with ComicBook.com last month, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige claimed that the team has a vague idea of where they want the franchise to be in five or six years’ time. We can therefore assume that the production house already has some ideas for what they’d like to do with their new Fox properties, but in the meantime, Marvel looks to have its hands pretty full.
Between now and 2021, Marvel is expected to drop seven films, starting with next month’s Avengers: Endgame, and most likely ending with the Shang-Chi movie. And with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 also in the works, THR suggests that the Fox heroes likely won’t arrive in theaters until 2021, or perhaps even 2022.
Complicating matters further are producer deals that need to be untangled or bought out. Longtime X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner, for instance, is said to have a deal that calls for her to receive an executive producer credit on any X-Men movie, whether she’s actively involved or not, and it’s thought that Simon Kinberg may have a similar deal.
In short, anyone expecting to hear some X-Men casting announcements in the next few months are almost certainly setting themselves up for disappointment. But for what it’s worth, THR also reports that Ryan Reynolds is expected to keep his role as a certain Merc with a Mouth in this new era of superhero cinema. And that can only be good news for Deadpool fans.