Kevin Feige Says 'X-Men' May Not Fit Into Marvel's Upcoming 5-Year Plan

“Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel’s massive three-hour end to the first chapter of their first ten years of business is almost upon us. Thus, ‘Endgame’ directors Joe and Anthony Russo, the writers, (some of) the cast and Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige are all doing the press rounds in the lead-up to the mega-blockbuster.

Now, while some sites have reported that the Fantastic Four or X-Men will make cameos at the end of the movie, or will be included in the end credits, nothing can be farther than the truth. While Disney/Marvel has acquired the rights to 20^th Century Fox’s Marvel properties, “Deadpool” the Fantastic Four universe, the X-Men universe, Marvel literally doesn’t have space for them at the moment.

Take if from Feige himself who says Marvel’s had a post-‘Endgame’ five-year plan set before Disney bought Fox and working new Fox characters into the MCU will take time.

“It’ll be a while,” Feige told io9 this week when asked about folding in the X-Men into the MCU. “It’s all just beginning and the five-year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of [the Fox sale] 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.”

Don’t hold your breath in other words and while, Feige declaratively saying X-Men won’t arrive in the next five years, it sounds like the mutants could come near the end of that time frame at the earliest.

This makes sense in many regards. Two Fox X-Men movies are coming out this year, “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” and (probably) “New Mutants” and it’s a good possibility Feige will want as much distance between these upcoming X-Men movies and whatever Marvel cooks up on their own in a reboot.

And then you have to remember what is already a stacked schedule. “The Eternals” and “Black Widow” shoot this year, meaning they come out in 2020. After that, it’s very likely “Shang-Chi” (which just hired a director), “Black Panther 2” and “Doctor Strange 2” for 2021. 2022 likely has “Guardians Of The Galaxy 3,” and perhaps some safe bets like a third “Spider-Man” film and “Captain Marvel 2.” That’s already three of five years accounted for, so perhaps patience is best.

Note, Feige doesn’t say “Fantastic Four” or “Deadpool.” The latter is said to be a priority or Disney’s Bob Iger, and there hasn’t been a “Fantastic Four” films since 2015, so if one were to arrive in 2023, that’s a good eight years between movies. The comment, however, if parsed carefully, could put into question Drew Goddard’s “X-Force.” You probably don’t want to introduce the edgy, irreverent, meta version of “X-Men” before you actually introduce the proper team and Goddard’s just taken on new writing and possibly directing work, so that could be a sign.

Of course, there’s Disney+ too, and there’s nothing to say X-Men characters couldn’t be introduced on the streaming channel before they’re introduced in movies. But so far, all the three greenlight Disney + shows (and all the other rumored shows) center around existing characters perhaps not big enough to receive their own movie, but accessible enough to live in a limited series run.

More info will likely surface in the upcoming weeks, but if you’re a betting person, I probably wouldn’t put any Fox characters on the docket (minus Deadpool) until 2022/2023 or so. “Avengers: Endgame” opens April 26. Watch the new featurette.