Marvel boss Kevin Feige teases X-Men joining the MCU: 'Perhaps soon'

Mutants might be incoming.

Ever since Disney acquired most of Fox's film and TV assets in 2019, fans have speculated about how and when Marvel might weave the X-Men into the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe. (An animated series, X-Men '97, is launching on Disney+ next year, but so far the iconic superhero team has yet to show up in any live-action projects.) Now, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is teasing their arrival, hinting that everyone's favorite mutants might be on their way "soon."

"The X-Men are as solid and as rich and as a great a concept in characters as exist," Feige said in a recent red carpet interview with Entertainment Tonight. "There's the return of the animated series next year, which we're very excited about. I saw some new final episodes today, which really bring you back to that core of who the X-Men are and that soap opera that those characters represent.

"And then in live-action, people will see," he continued. "Perhaps soon."

Feige's comments come after Disney released a cryptic new trailer for The Marvels (out Nov. 10) teasing a mysterious character in white and what sure looks to be the X-Men's signature X logo. Interestingly, Feige himself has a long history with the X-Men: Early in his producing career, he worked on X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand, and he's long cited Marvel's mutants as some of his favorite comic characters.

For years, rival studio Fox had the rights to all of Marvel's X-Men characters, keeping them separate from the Disney-owned MCU. The 2019 acquisition brought both under the same umbrella, and since then Marvel has slowly started to introduce mutant characters and concepts. Last year's Ms. Marvel Disney+ series confirmed that Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) is a mutant, and up next, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman will star in Deadpool 3, the first Deadpool movie released by Disney.

In an interview with EW earlier this year, Feige opened up about Marvel's careful approach to bringing mutants into the MCU.

"Part of the fun is that I've been at this company for half my life, and we're just now tapping into arguably one of the biggest aspects of the publishing history," he said. "It's pretty remarkable, and it's a testament to the house of ideas and what Marvel publishing has done these 80 years. The question is how to do it and when to do it, and that's something we've been working on for years."

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