While Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox will not be finalized for some time, that hasn't stopped fans from imagining the possibilities of a fully cohesive and all-inclusive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans aren't the only ones salivating over seeing the X-Men in the MCU either. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is apparently eager to have the characters back. He has even spoken about a specific moment he has wanted to show since 2000's X-Men, saying:
In the comic books, there was this great panel at the time, where Magneto would use his magnetic powers to take a gun and split it into all its component parts. So it was an amazing drawing and I had it up on my desk. And I went, 'wouldn't it be cool to do that?' No. We couldn't do that. We had wires that lifted up a shotgun and turned it around.
Kevin Feige is the head honcho at Marvel Studios, but long before that he was actually an associate producer on Bryan Singer's X-Men. That film really kicked off our current golden age of superheroes on film, but back then, there was no budget for gun disassembly. So Magneto simply lifted guns up and turned them around. That was a necessity at the time, but the visual of Magneto disassembling a gun is much cooler. Magneto is an incredible character, and this is such a neat way to show his power and control in an understated way. The disassembly of the gun also tells you a lot about Magneto and what he thinks of these human tools of war.
The one thing that comes across when listening to people at Marvel Studios, and Kevin Feige most of all, is how much many of them are comic book nerds at heart. Feige clearly has a passion for the characters and stories in this universe, and that comes through on screen. The fact that he can cite a specific comic book panel, as he did on the Maltin on Movies podcast, to want to bring to life in a film is awesome. Marvel is constantly drawing inspiration, be it specific images or storylines, from the comics to make its films. You have to think that if Kevin Feige gets his hands on Magneto again, he'll be highly inclined to finally deliver this image. And I am sure there are a lot more visuals like this that Kevin Feige is keen on using once he gets to play with the X-Men again.
These are early days, and Avengers: Infinity War may change the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it, but it is still exciting to think about the possibilities should the Disney-Fox deal go through and the X-Men are brought back into the fold. How to best incorporate the X-Men is a tricky question, but the possibilities are endless. The fact that such an obvious comic nerd like Kevin Feige will be shepherding them in gives me confidence that they will be treated care, respect and perhaps even continuity. While we await that possible eventuality, the MCU and Fox verses go on. Avengers: Infinity War arrives to dominate box offices on May 4, and Fox has an X-Men filled year ahead of it, including Phoenix Saga part deux, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which blazes into theaters on November 2.
