“…22 movies in, and we’ve got another 20 movies on the docket that are completely different from anything that’s come before—intentionally,” Kevin Feige said last month about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the next pair of ‘Avengers‘ movies. However, that statement was made before it became a very real likelihood that Disney was going to buy the movie and television arms of Fox. Needless to say, if and when that deal goes through, it’s going to be a massive game-changer, but more importantly for Feige, it’ll bring a boatload of Marvel characters back under their roof. And he can’t wait to get his hands on them.
Deadline reports that Feige is reportedly “eager” to have the X-Men at his disposal, and wants to “cross-pollinate the rich swarm of characters with the existing Marvel franchise heroes.” Well, duh. The storytelling opportunities it would open for Feige are endless, and it ensures that the franchise could go on and on, in countless varieties, forever (to those who have predicted the death of superhero movies, you’re wrong).
The big question remains what will happen to mutant movies currently in development at Fox such as “Gambit,” “X-Force,” and “Multiple Man” once they move under the Marvel and Disney roof. Undoubtedly, Feige will want to put his hands on them and make sure they are patterned into the fabric of the MCU.
And in case you’re wondering how Fox execs feel about all this, X-Men producer Laura Shuler Donner told Vanity Fair about moving to Marvel, “I would love it, I would love it. But it’s not for me to say.”
There are many moving parts in the Disney/Fox deal, but one of the most lucrative, at least from a blockbuster standpoint, is how the already mammoth Marvel will grow even bigger. The rest of Hollywood may just want to give up on trying to catch Marvel; they could soon be their industry unto themselves, if they’re not already.