MCU Architect Kevin Feige Reportedly Keen To Cross-Pollinate Fox/Marvel Characters

[Anh Kiet]

MCU Architect Kevin Feige Reportedly Keen To Cross-Pollinate Fox/Marvel Characters

News of the potential Disney/Fox deal has reached Marvel Towers, and Kevin Feige is reportedly keen to cross-pollinate “the rich swarm” of Fox characters with his existing Marvel heroes.
Of course, Feige was likely well aware of Disney’s ongoing pursuit of 21st Century Fox and its entertainment assets long before the news became official, but a new report from Deadline now claims that the MCU architect is “eager to get his hands on the X-Men universe.” Hardly surprising, really, considering the sheer amount of success (and box office revenue!) that Feige and Co. enjoyed by incorporating Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He’s said to be eager to get his hands on the X-Men universe — Fox has Deadpool 2, New Mutants, Dark Phoenix, Gambit, X-Force and the James Franco-starrer Multiple Man all on the assembly line — and cross-pollinate the rich swarm of characters with the existing Marvel franchise heroes who show up in each other’s films.

Deadline’s in-depth report also alludes to one other crucial fact: Kevin Feige’s MCU division is responsible for four of the highest-grossing films of all time in The Avengers, Captain America: Civil War, Iron Man 3, and Age of Ultron. And, well, let’s just say we’ll be very surprised if Infinity War falls short of $1 billion come 2018.
All things considered, it’s small wonder why Feige is considered to be one of the more important facets of this landmark acquisition; with a team of experts and kick-ass directors at his disposal, he fostered the development of a true box office juggernaut, which may soon welcome the likes of Wolverine, Deadpool and other major comic book characters into its midst.
Last we reported, negotiations between the Mouse House and Fox had progressed, with CNBC claiming that a deal could be finalized as soon as next week. More on Disney‘s potential acquisition when we have it.
Source: Deadline

[Zarc]

First of all, congratulations on your first post.

Secondly, I hope Marvel and Feige plays it reaaaaally slow when it comes to incorporating the X-men into the MCU. I mean, first of all, obviously they should not cross the Fox X-Men Universe with the MCU, and I don't think anyone is thinking that. When the X-Men finally do enter the MCU, if this deal does indeed happen, it will obviously be with rebooted X-Men characters portrayed by new actors.

Now, since the MCU has such a huge cast of characters already, and I really hope they get the rights back to all the Spider-man characters soon too, they can't just pile them all in there at once. And with the X-Men it basically doubles the amount of characters involved. Also, it would kind of make "normal" superheroes pale when every other teenager suddenly has superhuman powers as they hit puberty and their mutant genes materializes. Not to mention that they can't just throw them in there, they have to be added in a way that is believable. I mean, if the mutants have been around forever why are we just hearing about them now?

So, here's the incredibly slow play I hope that they will opt for as they incorporate them into the MCU:

Step 1) Because the Scarlet-Witch and Quicksilver got their powers from the Infinity Stone that was in Loki's staff, they should make the X-Men origin story for the MCU like this: When the Avengers defeats Thanos they should also destroy the Infinity Stones, and they should do it on Earth. The Infinity Stones' destruction should cause their essence to spread across the atmosphere of the Earth as pollution that will ultimately affect our genes and have some of our future children develop the X-gene. This would act as a setup way in advance, and basically retroactively name the Scarlet-Witch and Quicksilver the original Mutants in the MCU.

Step 2) Continue with the post-Phases "second period" of the MCU as already planned. Remember, Kevin Feige has said they already have 20 films planned for this "second period", with Spider-Man "Homecoming 2" and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 being the only two we know about so far. So they should continue with their plans and not do the X-Men at all for the next 10-15 years after Phase 3 concludes with the fourth Avengers movie. In the meantime, the people behind the current Fox X-Men cinematic universe will continue to produce their movies and television series while being owned by Disney, independent of Kevin Feige's people, with the added benefit of knowing that their universe will have to conclude within those 10-15 years, before the X-Men characters are rebooted for entry into the MCU.

Step 3) Introduce Charles Xavier, Magneto and a limited number of the original set of X-Men characters as teenagers as they discover their powers, and include them in the MCU on a level on par with the level of involvement of the Guardians of the Galaxy today. Just gently put them in the mix of the grown-up Spider-Man, whoever is Captain America by this time, etc.

Step 4) Then, in the 2040's (be patient!) let the X-Men virtually take over the MCU as Charles Xavier starts his school and Magneto transitions from having been a grey Loki-like character in "Step 3" to being an outright villain set to conquer mankind for the sake of Mutant kind, and unleash the full roster of X-Men characters as this conflict puts on heat.

Step 5) Kevin Feige's retires in his 70's and they reboot the whole thing. It will probobly suck, but the CGI will be great!

[tyrlaan]

First of all, congratulations on your first post.

Secondly, I hope Marvel and Feige plays it reaaaaally slow when it comes to incorporating the X-men into the MCU. I mean, first of all, obviously they should not cross the Fox X-Men Universe with the MCU, and I don't think anyone is thinking that. When the X-Men finally do enter the MCU, if this deal does indeed happen, it will obviously be with rebooted X-Men characters portrayed by new actors.

Now, since the MCU has such a huge cast of characters already, and I really hope they get the rights back to all the Spider-man characters soon too, they can't just pile them all in there at once. And with the X-Men it basically doubles the amount of characters involved. Also, it would kind of make "normal" superheroes pale when every other teenager suddenly has superhuman powers as they hit puberty and their mutant genes materializes. Not to mention that they can't just throw them in there, they have to be added in a way that is believable. I mean, if the mutants have been around forever why are we just hearing about them now?

So, here's the incredibly slow play I hope that they will opt for as they incorporate them into the MCU:

Step 1) Because the Scarlet-Witch and Quicksilver got their powers from the Infinity Stone that was in Loki's staff, they should make the X-Men origin story for the MCU like this: When the Avengers defeats Thanos they should also destroy the Infinity Stones, and they should do it on Earth. The Infinity Stones' destruction should cause their essence to spread across the atmosphere of the Earth as pollution that will ultimately affect our genes and have some of our future children develop the X-gene. This would act as a setup way in advance, and basically retroactively name the Scarlet-Witch and Quicksilver the original Mutants in the MCU.

Step 2) Continue with the post-Phases "second period" of the MCU as already planned. Remember, Kevin Feige has said they already have 20 films planned for this "second period", with Spider-Man "Homecoming 2" and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 being the only two we know about so far. So they should continue with their plans and not do the X-Men at all for the next 10-15 years after Phase 3 concludes with the fourth Avengers movie. In the meantime, the people behind the current Fox X-Men cinematic universe will continue to produce their movies and television series while being owned by Disney, independent of Kevin Feige's people, with the added benefit of knowing that their universe will have to conclude within those 10-15 years, before the X-Men characters are rebooted for entry into the MCU.

Step 3) Introduce Charles Xavier, Magneto and a limited number of the original set of X-Men characters as teenagers as they discover their powers, and include them in the MCU on a level on par with the level of involvement of the Guardians of the Galaxy today. Just gently put them in the mix of the grown-up Spider-Man, whoever is Captain America by this time, etc.

Step 4) Then, in the 2040's (be patient!) let the X-Men virtually take over the MCU as Charles Xavier starts his school and Magneto transitions from having been a grey Loki-like character in "Step 3" to being an outright villain set to conquer mankind for the sake of Mutant kind, and unleash the full roster of X-Men characters as this conflict puts on heat.

Step 5) Kevin Feige's retires in his 70's and they reboot the whole thing. It will probobly suck, but the CGI will be great!

Step 1 is pretty clever, but your 10-15 year "slow burn" period in step 2 is likely the pipiest of pipe dreams.

For starters, if the X-films were dong well enough that Disney would just let them run "as is"/as planned, I'd be dubious that Fox would want to sell the property back to Disney in the first place. I also can't imagine there are all that many fans of the X-Men that would support this idea. Most fans of the MCU seem to have pretty lukewarm takes on the X-universe Fox has put on screen, so I don't see why they'd want to endure another decade plus of lukewarm movies.

And honestly, if Feige is already talking about cross-pollinating, a 10-15 year waiting period just isn't happening.

[Zarc]

Step 1 is pretty clever, but your 10-15 year "slow burn" period in step 2 is likely the pipiest of pipe dreams.

For starters, if the X-films were dong well enough that Disney would just let them run "as is"/as planned, I'd be dubious that Fox would want to sell the property back to Disney in the first place. I also can't imagine there are all that many fans of the X-Men that would support this idea. Most fans of the MCU seem to have pretty lukewarm takes on the X-universe Fox has put on screen, so I don't see why they'd want to endure another decade plus of lukewarm movies.

And honestly, if Feige is already talking about cross-pollinating, a 10-15 year waiting period just isn't happening.

Dubious that Fox would want to sell the property back to Disney? What? The premise is that the deal being negotiated right now goes through. All I'm saying is that when that is done, the Fox X-Men cinematic universe can continue on while the MCU works through their other assets first, before they make room for the X-Men and after the Fox X-Men cinematic universe has run its course. As the production team working on the Fox X-Men cinematic universe will still be intact just with new owners as they're talking about selling most of 31st Century Fox to Disney, we're not talking about just selling the rights back to the characters. We're talking about 20th Century Fox and many fox properties being owned by Disney.

Anyway, Phase 1 through 3 of the MCU will have taken 11 years and 22 movies to complete. And given that they already have 20 movies planned for the "second period" of the MCU that may as well take 10 years, and that is before anyone was talking about Disney buying the entertainment assets of Fox. So there you have the "10-15" year waiting period already, unless you think they will put even more movies in the mix, but it's going to be hard to keep the story together if they do that. Keeping the X-Men universe as a separate entity that requires zero co-ordination with the MCU over a transitional period while knowing that they can use them for their plans of a potential "third period" of the MCU definitely seem like a very realistic scenario. And planning for the "third period" by Kevin Feige will begin when we just begin to see the first movies of the "second period", as he is always well ahead of us and the directors who helms the individual movies as he maps out the overreaching story arch and what characters should be involved. So while he may well start playing with the X-Men characters in 2019, that doesn't mean we will see any of them on the screen until 2030.

[tyrlaan]

Dubious that Fox would want to sell the property back to Disney? What? The premise is that the deal being negotiated right now goes through. All I'm saying is that when that is done, the Fox X-Men cinematic universe can continue on while the MCU works through their other assets first, before they make room for the X-Men and after the Fox X-Men cinematic universe has run its course. As the production team working on the Fox X-Men cinematic universe will still be intact just with new owners as they're talking about selling most of 31st Century Fox to Disney, we're not talking about just selling the rights back to the characters. We're talking about 20th Century Fox and many fox properties being owned by Disney.

Anyway, Phase 1 through 3 of the MCU will have taken 11 years and 22 movies to complete. And given that they already have 20 movies planned for the "second period" of the MCU that may as well take 10 years, and that is before anyone was talking about Disney buying the entertainment assets of Fox. So there you have the "10-15" year waiting period already, unless you think they will put even more movies in the mix, but it's going to be hard to keep the story together if they do that. Keeping the X-Men universe as a separate entity that requires zero co-ordination with the MCU over a transitional period while knowing that they can use them for their plans of a potential "third period" of the MCU definitely seem like a very realistic scenario. And planning for the "third period" by Kevin Feige will begin when we just begin to see the first movies of the "second period", as he is always well ahead of us and the directors who helms the individual movies as he maps out the overreaching story arch and what characters should be involved. So while he may well start playing with the X-Men characters in 2019, that doesn't mean we will see any of them on the screen until 2030.

Verb confusion in what I wrote. what I was trying to say is that I doubt they would have sold the X-franchise if it was doing well for them.

We have no idea how long Disney has been actually trying to get this deal and we have no idea that part of those "20 movies" planned aren't incorporating X-men or FF.

Also, they didn't wait a decade to make a Spider-man movie.

Expect to see them much, much sooner than 2030.

[oplawlz]

Verb confusion in what I wrote. what I was trying to say is that I doubt they would have sold the X-franchise if it was doing well for them.

We have no idea how long Disney has been actually trying to get this deal and we have no idea that part of those "20 movies" planned aren't incorporating X-men or FF.

Also, they didn't wait a decade to make a Spider-man movie.

Expect to see them much, much sooner than 2030.

They're not selling the x franchise, according to what we know. Disney is buying all of 21st century Fox.

[tss]

I'm so fucking tired of capeshit

[Tierbook]

I can just imagine 2021's Disney Slate now.

Marvel: House of M - MCU
GotG 3- MCU
Fantastic Four - MCU
Zootopia 2 - Disney Animation
Japanese cultural animated movie along the lines of a Miyazaki movie - Pixar
Boba Fett or Episode 1 of KoToR trilogy - Star Wars
Jungle Book 2 - Live Action
Avatar 2 or 3 - New Fox Studio

And those are just the major releases; note this is just a what if rather than their actual slate

[Flatspriest]

Currently, Fox owns a great many of the biggest villains there are in the marvel comics. Many of those such as Dr. Doom are wanted by Disney to use in their current iteration of the MCU.

[RobertoCarlos]

I can just imagine 2021's Disney Slate now.

Marvel: House of M - MCU
GotG 3- MCU
Fantastic Four - MCU
Zootopia 2 - Disney Animation
Japanese cultural animated movie along the lines of a Miyazaki movie - Pixar
Boba Fett or Episode 1 of KoToR trilogy - Star Wars
Jungle Book 2 - Live Action
Avatar 2 or 3 - New Fox Studio

And those are just the major releases; note this is just a what if rather than their actual slate

Pretty much but you forgot two.

The Lion King - Live action
The one original IP for the entire year - animation, target market children and parents.

[tyrlaan]

I'm so fucking tired of capeshit

I guess you know what not to spend money on then

Also worth noting that in the MCU Thor is the only major protagonist with a cape

[Tierbook]

Pretty much but you forgot two.

The Lion King - Live action
The one original IP for the entire year - animation, target market children and parents.

The Lion King will release in 2019,

In fact their 2019 slate is just as insane.
Captain Marvel
Dumbo
Avengers 4
Untitled DisneyToon movie
Aladdin
Toy Story 4
Lion King
Artemis Fowl
Frozen 2
Star wars 9

[Zarc]

Verb confusion in what I wrote. what I was trying to say is that I doubt they would have sold the X-franchise if it was doing well for them.

We have no idea how long Disney has been actually trying to get this deal and we have no idea that part of those "20 movies" planned aren't incorporating X-men or FF.

Also, they didn't wait a decade to make a Spider-man movie.

Expect to see them much, much sooner than 2030.

We know what Comcast and Sony was involved in trying to get their hands on 21st Century Fox because the previous talks with Disney failed, before they were resumed again. So we know it has not been a done deal, so while they may well have a "Plan B in case we get our hands on the X-Men" much like they did for Spider-Man, they certainly have a Plan A of 20 movies without that too. I say go with Plan A.

Also, as others have said, they are not selling the X-Men franchise. They are selling all of 21st Century Fox basically. Rupbert Murdoch split his company in two fairly recently, News Corp. which is Fox News, Wall Street Journal, etc. and an entirely separate company that is 21st Century Fox which is the entertainment stuff, film production (including 20th Century Fox and franchises like The Simpsons, Aliens, Predator, Avatar, etc.), television (including National Geographic, Sky Inc., etc). We're talking a 60 billion dollar deal here. It's more of a merger than a buyout really, since the talks is that it would be an all-stock buyout, meaning that the shareholders of 31st Century Fox would be given Disney stocks in place of their 31st Century Fox stocks. It seems like James Murdoch wants to be CEO of Disney, and as it happens Disney is looking for somebody to replace Bob Iger who is due to step down in 2019. So what would happen is that James would go on to be at Disney being a big shot executive with a large stock investment while Lachlan Murdoch takes over News Corp. It's Rupert Murdoch sorting out his business with regards to his sons as he's old as fuck by now and is due to die off. That's why Disney is their preferred choice of buyer.

And the reason why Disney wants to buy has more to do with Netflix than with X-Men specifically. It's because they are launching their own streaming service to compete with Netflix next year (and pulling all of their content from Netflix), and they want to stock up on IPs to be #1.

[RobertoCarlos]

The Lion King will release in 2019,

In fact their 2019 slate is just as insane.
Captain Marvel
Dumbo
Avengers 4
Untitled DisneyToon movie
Aladdin
Toy Story 4
Lion King
Artemis Fowl
Frozen 2
Star wars 9

Nearly all of them will make upwards 800million-1billion as well :/

[tyrlaan]

We know what Comcast and Sony was involved in trying to get their hands on 21st Century Fox because the previous talks with Disney failed, before they were resumed again. So we know it has not been a done deal, so while they may well have a "Plan B in case we get our hands on the X-Men" much like they did for Spider-Man, they certainly have a Plan A of 20 movies without that too. I say go with Plan A.

Also, as others have said, they are not selling the X-Men franchise. They are selling all of 21st Century Fox basically. Rupbert Murdoch split his company in two fairly recently, News Corp. which is Fox News, Wall Street Journal, etc. and an entirely separate company that is 21st Century Fox which is the entertainment stuff, film production (including 20th Century Fox and franchises like The Simpsons, Aliens, Predator, Avatar, etc.), television (including National Geographic, Sky Inc., etc). We're talking a 60 billion dollar deal here. It's more of a merger than a buyout really, since the talks is that it would be an all-stock buyout, meaning that the shareholders of 31st Century Fox would be given Disney stocks in place of their 31st Century Fox stocks. It seems like James Murdoch wants to be CEO of Disney, and as it happens Disney is looking for somebody to replace Bob Iger who is due to step down in 2019. So what would happen is that James would go on to be at Disney being a big shot executive with a large stock investment while Lachlan Murdoch takes over News Corp. It's Rupert Murdoch sorting out his business with regards to his sons as he's old as fuck by now and is due to die off. That's why Disney is their preferred choice of buyer.

And the reason why Disney wants to buy has more to do with Netflix than with X-Men specifically. It's because they are launching their own streaming service to compete with Netflix next year (and pulling all of their content from Netflix), and they want to stock up on IPs to be #1.

I'd sooner expect them to start pumping out a 4th movie a year than postponing any X movies to 2030. Much, much sooner. Hell, I'd sooner expect a 5th movie a year.

Sure, we'll see Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix (shudder) get released. Possibly whatever this New Mutants movie thing is, but anything past that would seem fundamentally silly not to be expressly part of the MCU.

[Tierbook]

Nearly all of them will make upwards 800million-1billion as well :/

Dumbo, Artemis Fowl, the Untitled DisneyToon and probably Captain Marvel being the exceptions.

Also Spiderman 2 comes out though it's a Sony movie.

[RobertoCarlos]

Dumbo, Artemis Fowl, the Untitled DisneyToon and probably Captain Marvel being the exceptions.

Also Spiderman 2 comes out though it's a Sony movie.

Dumbo will do well I think. Unsure on artemis/untitled. Frozen 2 and star wars 9 will be the big hitters. Avengers 4 too jesus. They could all easily break records

[Tierbook]

Dumbo will do well I think. Unsure on artemis/untitled. Frozen 2 and star wars 9 will be the big hitters. Avengers 4 too jesus. They could all easily break records

Records they set just last year. They made just a hair over 3 billion. Domestically. The profit margin for this year will likely be better than last year as well since the only 'flop' was Cars 3. And that might have turned a profit depending on it's budget. Of the 7 Disney movies released this year they have made an average of over 270mil. This includes Born in China (Nature documentary that made 13mil) and Coco which is still playing and doing well, also Thor is still making decent money

Also given how the series is going I wonder if the Disneytoon movie will be Duck Tales.

[Zarc]

I'd sooner expect them to start pumping out a 4th movie a year than postponing any X movies to 2030. Much, much sooner. Hell, I'd sooner expect a 5th movie a year.

Sure, we'll see Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix (shudder) get released. Possibly whatever this New Mutants movie thing is, but anything past that would seem fundamentally silly not to be expressly part of the MCU.

Didn't say they would postpone any X-Men movies to 2030. I said they should keep the Fox X-Men cinematic universe going for 10-15 years more, then reboot it and add them into the MCU after that time. Would seem silly to me for the X-Men to just pop up out of nowhere at this point of the MCU. Also you don't want more characters going at the same time than you can cram into an Avengers movie every couple of years in the same universe. Quality over quantity I say.

[Thage]

Let's be honest here, Disney is likely throbbing hard for the box office bank they're about to acquire with the X-Men and Deadpool franchises, and if GOTG is anything to go by, Feige might actually deliver us a decent Fantastic Four movie (in which case, I really hope there's an in-joke regarding Chris Evans, who played Johnny Storm in the first Fox FF movies).