During the recent Cinema Sangha podcast, journalist and former Birth.Movie.Death. editor-in-chief Devin Faraci shared some scoops about Marvel Studios’ plans for the X-Men in the MCU in which he revealed that their absence in Phase 5 and 6 line-up announcement last weekend was due to a “contractual situation with the original Fox stuff.”
“Despite the introduction of mutants at the end of Ms. Marvel, there’s no mutants in Phase 5. I know why. I know why there’s no mutants. I know why this is going to take a while,” Faraci said. “There might be individual mutants, there might be other characters that show a certain interest. The reason why is the contractual situation with the original Fox stuff is going to be in effect until 2025. So, if they don’t want to use those actors, then they have to wait until that contract all expires.”
Faraci noted that Patrick Stewart in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming Deadpool 3 are the exceptions to the rule since they are the original actors of their respective characters during the Fox iteration.
He also added that the reveal at the end of Ms. Marvel doesn’t violate the contract since Iman Vellani is the first actress to play Kamala Khan as well as Tenoch Huerta’s Namor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever if he gets revealed to be a mutant in the film.
When asked if Marvel Studios will reveal some plans about their mutant-related projects during the upcoming D23, Faraci noted that there are still open slots in the Phase 6 line-up and there is a chance that we might not see any of the mutants until Phase 7.
“If they’re going to have stuff hitting in 2025 at the end of the contract, then they’ll announce it. But I think they actually can’t go into production until the contract’s up,” he said. “So it’s not even a release - it’s the same thing with Superman. So they’re going to be Phase 7. So you’re not going to see mutants until Phase 7. There are going to be mutants that will show up after the Multiverse Saga is over.”
While it might be disappointing to hear that we might not get a full X-Men movie in the MCU until Phase 7, they have been dropping seeds about it starting with Ms. Marvel and it looks like they will take their time in introducing them. Nevertheless, they are definitely coming in a few years and, before that, we will be undergoing the Multiverse Saga first.
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Stay tuned for more news and updates on the arrival of the mutants in the MCU.