The Future of the X-Men Movie Franchise

[Ayen]

So, now that Disney owns 20th Century Fox and already has Fantastic Four slated for a Phase V release, what's to become of the X-Men movie franchise? Should they continue as a separate entity from the MCU, or should they join the MCU and be made by Marvel Studios from now on? And if so, how should they incorporate characters like Xavier, Magneto, and Wolverine when they were older mutants and for obvious reasons they've never mentioned mutants in the past. And would Wanda finally be called Scarlet Witch?

I want to see them as part of the MCU, but I'm also not ready to give up Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm not sure if Diseny would want to mess with Deadpool's success, so I feel it might be safe.

I'm both excited and dreading MCU's take on the X-Men as I've never really felt like Hollywood has ever truly captured what makes the series so good. On the other hand, Marvel itself also seems to have lost touch with the franchise if the last twenty years of the books are anything to go by. I sort of have faith MCU will finally do them justice and at least not make the films solely about Wolverine or Xavier, but I'm also a bit leery because I'd imagine they would follow suit with their other franchises and likely adapt on of the more "modern" (i.e. post 2010) stories first since fans would be familiar with it. Whereas I feel X-Men hit their prime in the 80s and 90s. I've already heard rumors that their introduction might be a distilled adaption of X-Men vs. Avengers. On the other hand, Civil War was kind of an awful storyline in the books whereas the films made it work a bit better despite being just as contrived.

The other issue here is just the sad fact that despite the new films having some great casting, I'm going to be bummed that we won't have the excellent casting of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellian for these films as I really felt the Fox films did that part right.

So I am cautiously optimistic.

[Del Murder]

It would be very challenging to have mutants exist in the current MCU history since they have not been mentioned at all. But they could easily incorporate them using multiple dimensions, something Avengers Endgame sort of opened the door to.

X-Men already have enough characters to be their own universe but an Avengers vs. X-Men movie is probably too good for them to pass up.

[Ayen]

I'd imagine they would follow suit with their other franchises and likely adapt on of the more "modern" (i.e. post 2010) stories first since fans would be familiar with it.

Oh. Then it's probably too much to hope for them to start off with the original five X-Men and build from there. That how I would od it anyway, though the original X-Men wasn't as popular as the latter international team that started in 75.

[Wolf Kanno]

I feel like it would be cool to start with the original X-Men as well but I imagine they wouldn't go any further back than the International team for the same reasons you stated. Honestly, it's going to be really tricky to combine X-Men into the MCU because they'll have to deal with the big pink elephant in the room of a plothole that has always plagued the books and is why the X-teams rarely crossover with other Marvel teams. The simple fact of how the world can have mutant paranoia at the same time as the world celebrating superhero teams like the Fantastic Four and Avengers. How does the Thing get to walk down Manhattan getting selfies with people while Beast is shunned in academia due to being a self-professed mutant? The MCU does have the content of Civil War and the Sokovia Accords to help in this regard but it may be tricky to incorporate them into the universe without some wonky hand waving.

It will be interesting to see how this works out for them. Personally, I'm more excited by the prospect of having Doctor Doom in the MCU.