With the upcoming release of Marvel’s The Avengers: Infinity War, fans are excited and still speculating about which unseen characters will make appearances in the film. Some of these speculations and rumors have gone so far as to implicate various members of the X-Men, despite Marvel Studios not currently owning the rights to the mutants. Unfortunately, these rumors and speculations have been put to rest recently.
Guardians of The Galaxy director James Gunn has confirmed via social media that we will absolutely not see the X-Men make their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in The Avengers: Infinity War, which he is attached to as an executive producer. This is in spite of of the assumption that Fox’s decision to sell their assets (which Comcast is still reportedly interested in) is set in stone.
The two-time Marvel director spoke to his fans on Facebook to explain that Marvel Studios is not getting overly cocky with the Fox deal, as it is 11 to 17 months away from being confirmed by the United States government since there are questions surrounding the planned merger regarding monopolization and antitrust laws. Gunn also eliminated the likes of the Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, or Silver Surfer appearing in the movie as well:
There is no merge yet between Disney and Fox, it does not exist yet. Hopefully, it will exist; hopefully, they will work it out. But, it doesn’t exist. You will not see X-Men or anyone else like that in Infinity Wars — Avengers 3 or Avengers 4 — because those movies have been shot.”
Considering the circumstances surrounding the Disney-Fox deal, this is not breaking news for anybody. It does not matter if government regulators expedited the deal so that it could be finalized and approved before the end of the year, that wouldn’t give Marvel Studios a lot of room to do anything with the X-Men. At best, they could only insert a quick post-credits scene referencing the mutants at the end of The Avengers 4 which would still not be a priority for the studio. Marvel Studios’ main priorities with the next two installments of The Avengers is to wrap up multiple story arcs for the various characters that we have gotten familiar with over the last ten years, which means they’ll be emphasizing characters that they already own instead of new additions.
We are not likely to see a full-scale outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s X-Men until approximately 2022 if we’re being generous. This would mean that they’d be rebooted after a full four years after X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which may be the final film in the Fox X-Men series continuity excluding spin-offs like Deadpool 2 and The New Mutants. This is not a situation similar to what had occured with Spider-man: Homecoming where Sony Pictures needed to get out within two years if they wanted to get back on track. Marvel Studios does not need to rush to integrate the X-Men or any other Fox-owned Marvel properties into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is more than likely going to develop his own plans for what he wants to do with the mutants instead of building the universe around the X-Men and altering the slate like what had to be done with Spider-man: Homecoming.
Avengers: Infinity War will be released on May 4, 2018, and has a cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautisa, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland, Sebastian Stan, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Rudd, Cobie Smulders, Benedict Wong, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Hiroyuki Sanada, Winston Duke, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, Benicio Del Toro, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, and Josh Brolin. Here’s the official synopsis:
As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.
The Avengers 4 features a cast made up of many of the key players in Infinity War — alongside newcomers like Brie Larson and Evangeline Lilly — and is scheduled to release in theaters on May 3, 2019.
What do you think of this news? Do you want to see the X-Men in the MCU? Let us know in the comments down below!
