Last December, the fan community went nuts when Disney bought 21st Century Fox and a large part of that is the fact that Disney owns Marvel Studios, while Fox holds the film rights to Marvel Comics characters the Fantastic Four and the X-Men (thanks to deals brokered before the creation of Marvel Studios). Now it seemed like any day now, we’d received word of those characters “coming home” to Marvel Studios. Soon we’d get proper versions of the FF and possibly see Wolverine and Deadpool hobnobbing with Captain America and Spider-Man. But… crickets.
Part of that is because both studios have their movies planned out for years. But another reason is that the buyout has not been finalized and due to legal reasons, may not be for some time. But with such a huge undertaking as merging these properties, however, it’s never too early to begin planning, right?
Wrong. As Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige responded when asked by Entertainment Weekly if Marvel had started planning on what to do with the Fantastic Four and X-Men:
No. It’s all about getting Infinity War finished and out, starting Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Untitled Avengers, the next Spider-Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3. These are the ones that are keeping us busy. When and how that deal with Fox finishes and comes together and we’re told, “Hey, now you can start working on it. Now you can start thinking about it,” is when we’ll actually start thinking about it. I will say just the notion of having what, frankly, most other companies with [intellectual property] have all along, which is access to all of their characters, that would be fun.
So sadly fans, it looks as though it will be several YEARS before we even get a hint of these characters interacting… and that’s only if everything gets finalized the way fans hope.
Are you disappointed?
