Kevin Feige Says Marvel Studio Has 5-Year Plan After ‘Avengers: Endgame’

It would appear that you might be out of luck if you have any desire to see the X-Men make their way to the shared MCU over the course of the next several years. This may have been one of the first things that popped into your head when Disney and Fox merged last month, but it’s still a long way off according to Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige. 

In fact, Feige said that X-Men characters won’t find their way into the shared cinematic universe populated by Marvel’s most bankable heroes for a “very long time.” Feige made these comments to io9 during a recent event intended to hype Avengers: Endgame. He also said that the studio has another long-term plan that will begin in 2020, after the conclusion of the rapidly impending blockbuster (plus July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home), which is the culmination of 11-years (and 22 movies) of build-up. 

“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,” Feige said about the X-Men finally getting in on the shared events. “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.”

io9 further reports that, at the time the Disney/Fox deal closed, Marvel Studios had completed almost all of their “Phase 4” plan, which means that characters acquired after the merger weren’t really included. However, on top of getting the rights to several hundred X-Men characters, Marvel also got ahold of TV and film rights for the Fantastic Four, in addition to their big-time villains (think Dr. Doom and Galactus). 

Feige was unwilling to talk about the studio’s upcoming moves in too much depth, but the next five-year period appears likely to kick-off with properties like Black Widow and The Eternals, in addition to some others. He did speak in fairly general terms that could lend themselves to speculation (so make your way to Reddit if you want), but said that the future plans aren’t necessarily comparable to what’s already been done.

“The slate that we’re building over the next five years [is] not apples to apples,” he said when asked to breakdown the similarities between the studio’s past and future. “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.”

Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26. Though it’s likely that, if you care, you were already aware of that.