While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has featured plenty of original material over the years, from introducing the Clark Gregg-portrayed Phil Coulson to changing Thanos’ motivation for wiping out half of all life in the universe, ultimately the superhero franchise turns to the comics for story inspiration. This includes massive crossovers like The Infinity Gauntlet and Civil War, and now a new Marvel Comics event is being teased that’ll involve the Avengers, X-Men and Eternals. So it is possible something similar could unfold within the MCU?
What Marvel Comics Has In Store For The Avengers, X-Men And Eternals
Earlier today, Marvel Comics announced a crossover event called Judgement Day is coming in summer 2022, and it’ll see the Avengers, X-Men and Eternals colliding in some fashion. Specific plot information is being kept under lock and key right now, but more details will be revealed next week. For now, all we have to work off of are three ominous quotes from Tony Stark/Iron Man, Irene Adler (a.k.a. Destiny, not to be confused with the same-named Sherlock Holmes character) and Druig, an Eternal who was played by Barry Keoghan in the Eternals movie. You can read them below:
“Speaking broadly, I’m pro-hubris, but… how on Earth do you think we’re going to make a god in a few hours?” - Tony Stark
“There will always be a war. That’s the one thing one can always be sure of.” - Irene Adler
“For a million years, Earth has been protected from the Deviants. But we made a mistake… we missed some. The mutants.” - Druig
The X-Men and the Avengers have crossed over many times in the comics, with one of more notable shared events being 2010’s Avengers vs. X-Men. And while the Eternals haven’t gotten nearly as much page space over the decades and are usually shown within more self-contained stories, they’ve also spent time with the Avengers and X-Men on occasion. But to have all three together like this is a pretty big deal, and it’ll be interesting to see how the aftermath of Judgement Day affects the wider Marvel Comics universe.
Is This Doable Within The MCU?
If you’d asked me this question a half decade ago, I would have said no way. Back then, 20th Century Fox was still a separate film studio and had the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, hence why those teams haven’t appeared in the MCU yet. However, Disney has since acquired Fox and renamed it 20th Century Studios, so now both the X-Men and Fantastic Four are under the Marvel Studios umbrella and will be introduced to the MCU at some point, with Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Jon Watts directing the reboot centered on the latter group.
As for the Eternals, their first movie came out last November, and while a sequel hasn’t been announced yet, we can expect to see some, if not all of the surviving protagonists in the MCU again. And while it’s unclear if the Avengers team is technically still active in Phase Four, you can be sure that if a big enough threat emerges, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will come together to vanquish it. So hypothetically speaking, yes, a crossover between the Avengers, X-Men and Eternals is doable in the MCU. Depending on what happened, it has the potential to be just as massive as Endgame, if not more so.
What Are The Chances We Actually See This The MCU?
First off, whatever ends up going down in this Judgement Day crossover, don’t expect the MCU to deliver a faithful adaptation of the event. Whenever the MCU adapts a Marvel Comics crossover, it often takes major creative liberties with the narrative beats; or, in the case of Avengers: Age of Ultron, is similar in name only. But speaking more generally, I’d say there’s a decent chance the MCU’s versions of the Avengers, X-Men and Eternals could come together someday, although you shouldn’t expect to see it for a long time.
The major obstacle to making this happen is the fact that, as already mentioned, we haven’t seen the X-Men in the MCU yet. Right now the MCU film slate is filled to summer 2023, and with movies like Blade, Fantastic Four and Captain America 4 making steady progress, I’d say the earliest we see an X-Men-related movie is in 2025. Tack on a few extra years for the mutants to get settled in this continuity, and any type of crossover akin to Judgement Day likely wouldn’t unfold until the late 2020s, if not sometime in the early 2030s.
It is worth mentioning there have been rumors that the Eternals could play a role in bringing mutants into the MCU. Should that be case, maybe we could see an Eternals/X-Men crossover a little sooner, if not simply have it unfold in the X-Men’s first MCU movie. But for now, the pieces simply aren’t in place yet for the Avengers, X-Men and Eternals to collide in one setting. Besides, with all the mutliversal craziness unfolding in this superhero franchise and a Secret Wars movie that could possibly be in development, cramming in a crossover like this could feel like overkill.
Eternals can now be streamed by those who have a Disney+ subscription, and we’ll keep you apprised on news about the X-men reboot, another Avengers installment and any other upcoming Marvel movies.
