Kevin Feige Hints X-Men Won't Join MCU for at Least Five More Years

Because Avengers: Endgame will close the curtain on a majority of our favorite superheroes and their storylines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans have been left to wonder what’s to come for Phase 4. With 22 movies, which collectively have made about $20 billion under Marvel’s belt already, it’s going to be hard to top Phase 3. So far we know that Captain Marvel will be leading a whole new set of superheroes into the next set of movies, but who else will be joining her?

After Disney’s recent purchase of Fox, fans have been speculating how characters such as the X-Men, Deadpool, and the Fantastic Four will be introduced into MCU, but according to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, the wait will be longer than some expected for all the characters to come together.

“It’ll be a while,” Feige told io9 regarding the X-Men’s inclusion. “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. 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.”

So far, the next five years are believed to be spearheaded by films Black Widow, The Eternals, and Shang-Chi, among others rumored. The secrecy surrounding Phase 4 is even greater than Endgame, however hard that is to believe, but if the upcoming conclusion to the third phase tells us anything in its end (or possible post-credit scenes), it’ll be a hint at the next to come.

“The slate that we’re building over the next five years [is] not apples to apples,” Feige continued. “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.”

While Endgame is closing out Phase 3, we aren’t losing all of our beloved heroes just yet, as Phase 4 will include films like Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2, and Doctor Strange 2. And although the X-Men likely won’t debut on the big screen for years, there’s still a chance that their existence will be hinted at in future films. So fret not.