While there are a lot of questions that need to be answered about it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will have its own version of the X-Men hitting the upcoming MCU movies slate before too long. Disney's merger with Fox back in 2019 meant that that previously licensed characters would be available to the canon for the first time, and in addition to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it is only a matter of time before we get a full-on X-Men movie set in the Marvel timeline.
At this stage in the game, there is a solid mix of things that we know and don’t know about the X-Men and other mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so while we wait for the picture to further clarify, we’ve put together this guide. We’ll continue to update this feature as things develop and new details are announced, but for now, here’s what we know so far about the MCU X-Men movie.
The MCU X-Men Movie Release Date
There presently is no X-Men movie to be found on the Marvel Cinematic Universe release calendar. There are six films with established dates set to arrive in theaters between now and summer 2027, and there is zero specific indication that we will be getting a new MCU X-Men movie in that time span. At least for now, the upcoming films include:
- Captain America: Brave New World in February 2025
- Thunderbolts* in May 2025
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July 2025
- Avengers: Doomsday in May 2026
- Untitled Spider-Man 4 in July 2026
- Avengers: Secret Wars in May 2027
While fans will have to wait to see the live-action MCU X-Men, there are a couple of upcoming Marvel TV shows featuring mutant characters – including the final run of What If…? and new seasons of X-Men ’97.
The MCU X-Men Movie Director
With the MCU X-Men movie currently existing more as a behind-the-scenes idea than an officially announced project, it won’t surprise anyone reading this to read that there is currently no director attached to make the film. There have been some shaky online rumors suggesting Jordan Peele has met with Marvel Studios to discuss ideas, but neither party has confirmed whether or not that meeting ever happened, let alone that the subject of conversation was the proper introduction of mutants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Because so little is known about how Marvel Studios will eventually approach the first MCU X-Men movie, it’s impossible to say what kind of director will ultimately take the helm of the film. It’s possible that they could try and reach out to standout auteur filmmakers to take on the vital assignment, or the blockbuster might end up in the hands of an up-and-comer (Jon Watts made Spider-Man: Homecoming as his third feature, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be director Matt Shakman’s second).
X-Men Characters We Have Seen In Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies
As of 2024, the canon Marvel Cinematic Universe – known in-world as Earth-616 – has not been led by any X-Men characters… but that’s not the same thing as saying zero X-Men characters have appeared in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Thanks to universe-hoping antics in recent films, some special heroes have appeared within the franchise:
Professor X
In Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, the titular sorcerer is taken by America Chavez to Earth-838, and part of his time there is spent pleading a case in front of a powerful panel called the Illuminati. One member of this group is Professor Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart), though he is eventually killed when he engages in a psychic battle with the Scarlet Witch and gets his neck snapped.
Beast
After Monica Rambeau gets trapped in an alternate universe at the end of The Marvels, she wakes up in a hospital bed and is shocked to be face-to-face with her mother – but what Marvel fans really love about the end credits scene is that it features the return of Dr. Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast in his full blue, furry glory (and the voice of Kelsey Grammer, who previously played the role in X-Men: The Last Stand).
Deadpool
We’re playing a bit loose with the definition of “X-Men characters” here, as Deadpool isn’t really best known for being a part of the famous mutant team, but he has been affiliated with the group, so he is being counted. Wade Wilson, played by Ryan Reynolds, makes a brief stop in Earth-616 at the start of Deadpool & Wolverine, but the vast majority of the film is set in the X-Men universe (a.k.a. Earth-10005) and the barren dimension known as The Void.
Wolverine
Hugh Jackman made his big comeback as Logan a.k.a. Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine, but his future playing the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is underdetermined (despite insistence by Deadpool throughout the movie that Marvel will have the Australian actor playing the part until he is 90 years old). At the end of the film, Wolverine is featured going in Earth-10005, and we don’t yet know if he will ever get to Earth-616.
Gambit
Channing Tatum spent years and years trying to develop a solo Gambit movie, and while that film never got on its feet, the actor did finally get the chance to play the character in Deadpool & Wolverine. The titular anti-heroes meet the card-throwing Cajun while they are stuck in the Void, and they team up with him (alongside some other big screen Marvel rejects) to try and defeat Emma Corrin’s Cassandra Nova.
Existing Mutants In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Just because Earth-616 doesn’t feature any proper X-Men characters yet doesn’t mean that it isn’t completely without mutants. In this space, we’ll keep track of all the characters in the canon who have been specifically identified as Homo superior.
Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel
As things presently stand, the only known mutant character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel – played by Iman Vellani. It is established in the finale of the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series that her powers come from a mutant gene, and the revelation was paired with a musical queue familiar to fans of X-Men: The Animated Series.
How The X-Men Could Factor Into Avengers: Secret Wars
At present, nothing is known about the plot of Avengers: Secret Wars – but given comic book history, there is a possibility that the film will involve X-Men characters in some way. This is total speculation, but we’re gonna let it rip anyway:
In the 2015 Secret Wars event published by Marvel Comics, the main Marvel Universe is destroyed when it quite literally collides with an alternate canon known as the Ultimate Universe. Following the events of Deadpool & Wolverine, it’s not wholly inconceivable that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will pull off something very similar on the big screen and have the MCU end up crashing together with Earth-10005.
Whether or not this is used as a path to introduce a new version to the MCU is something we may not know until summer 2027.
How To Watch The Previous X-Men Movies
Watching all of the X-Men movies is not a hard thing to do in the 2020s, as there are many potential avenues to go with. If you have a Disney+ subscription, you’re just a few clicks away from watching all of the movies in the X-Men timeline right now. This list includes:
- X-Men (2000)
- X2: X-Men United (2003)
- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
- X-Men: First Class (2011)
- The Wolverine (2013)
- X-Men: Days Of Future Past (2014)
- Deadpool (2016)
- X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
- Logan (2017)
- Deadpool 2 (2018)
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)
- The New Mutants (2020)
For physical media fans, all of the movies are available for purchase on 4K UHD and Blu-ray (the original trilogy is collected as a box set), and all of the titles can also be found from digital retailers for rent and purchase.
It hopefully won’t be too long before more information is made available about the future of the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (perhaps at San Diego Comic-Con 2025?), but you can be sure that we’ll have all of the biggest news about the project for you here on CinemaBlend as it arrives online.
