How Dark Phoenix Will Lead Into The Future of MCU
As most everybody knows now, Disney has bought the rights to the X-Men franchise, which means that Marvel now has the ability to bring mutants into the next phase of the MCU (if the studio decides they want to break their “wait ten years” statement of course). Buying the X-Men is probably the most talked about thing concerning the Disney buyout of Fox. Marvel has proven that they can make a pretty good superhero movie, while other studios have -- well… “struggled” with it to say the least. The only truly good X-Men movie has been Logan. The rest have been somewhat underwhelming (First Class was okay), and Dark Phoenix doesn’t seem like it’s going to break the cycle.
It’s supposed to be the last X-Men movie to be released on the Fox side of things (not counting New Mutants), and act as a conclusion to the X-Men storyline that started with First Class. But Disney did buyout Fox before the movie could be released, so they always could have just canceled the whole project, but they decided not to. So now that Disney has decided to go ahead with releasing the film, is there a way Dark Phoenix could lead into the future of the MCU?
How the Dark Phoenix Could Fit Into the MCU
While they wouldn’t use the movie itself to do it, there may be a way for Marvel to connect Dark Phoenix to the MCU -- even if there’s very little chance that they would want to. Spider-Man: Far From Home recently released a trailer that hinted that the movie would be introducing the concept of the multiverse to the MCU. With a multiverse established, Marvel would have the ability to connect their MCU with Fox’s current X-Men universe. They could use Far From Home as a way to bring the many characters from the Fox universe over to the MCU or to at least to show that both universes coexist so that they can bring them in later.
There’s not much point in this though when you consider that most of the big name mutants like Charles and Wolverine aren’t useable. Well, they are, but the fan-favorite actors who play them aren’t useable. While recasting the roles is a possible idea, why do it with the currently established X-Men universe? You’re just reminding people that their favorite Wolverine and Charles are no longer associated with the characters any longer.
Either way, the multiverse theory is still, of course, all dependant upon whether or not the multiverse is actually a thing in the movie. You gotta question everything presented to you in the trailer not just because of Marvel’s reputation of lying about what goes on in their films, but also because of the presence of Mysterio. Mysterio kinda sorta complicates things. Mysterio is a master of illusions and a known Spider-Man villain in the comics (which makes his alliance with Spidey seem like a surefire sign that anything we see in the trailers is fishy). Mysterio makes a living off of getting people to believe whatever he wants them to believe, and in the movie, he’s apparently the one who introduces the idea of a multiverse to Nick and Peter. So you can see why the multiverse idea is a little flimsy.
Still, Mysterio could be using a little bit of the truth to enhance his lies. Maybe the multiverse really does exist. If it does then Far From Home could tie itself into Dark Phoenix with a credits scene. It could show us that the next phase of the MCU will be dealing with the blendings of the mutants from Fox with the heroes of Marvel. We don’t think this is the preferred route Marvel will go, but it does seem like something that’s plausible at least.
Possible Dark Phoenix & MCU Connection
The real and most likely answer to whether or not Dark Phoenix will connect to the MCU is “no.” While the X-Men movies haven’t necessarily been the best things in the world, they have been going on for about twenty years now, and twenty years is a pretty decent amount of time to gain something of a following. Said following probably wouldn’t be okay if the movies’ they’ve spent so much time and money going to see suddenly just stopped because someone purchased the movies’ producers (especially if the movies’ themselves were already ready for viewing on the big screen).
The film was more or less completed by the time the Disney-Fox deal went through, so Marvel wouldn’t have the time to edit or add in anything that would tie the movie into the MCU. At least none of the current promotions for the movie shows it has any ties with the MCU, and at this point in time, there would be really no reason to hold anything back. Most people think that Dark Phoenix is going to be a flop. Promoting it as something that’ll be apart of the MCU in the future would be a good way to get people more interested in it, even more so now that Endgame has come and gone.
Fans wanna know what’s next for the MCU and the X-Men seem like the logical next step for the universe now that they can use them. Marvel assuredly knows this, so if they’re not marketing the movie as part of their cinematic universe, it’s because it simply isn’t. No -- more than likely Dark Phoenix is just going to be a conclusion to the X-Men storyline currently in play. Just look at Endgame. We all went into Endgame knowing that it wouldn’t be the last movie of the MCU. It was announced some time ago that the cinematic universe would continue even if the producers weren’t sure that the future stories would end as grandly as this one. Despite this, Endgame didn’t have a credits scene. It was treated as it was promoted: “the end of a journey.” Instead of getting a credits scene, we got a homage to what started it all to begin with. Dark Phoenix isn’t anywhere near as hyped as Endgame, but we imagine it would still be treated the same way: as a conclusion. No setup to anything else. Twenty years is, after all, something of an accomplishment.
The fact that Marvel probably wouldn’t connect this movie to the MCU is probably a good idea in the long run. The MCU will more than likely want to establish the X-Men in their own way rather than rely on the currently established film world. They did the same thing when they got access to Spider-Man. Instead of continuing on with the “Amazing Spider-Man” film series, they decided to just put the series through another reboot. They got rid of actors, pre-established storylines — everything. They even went so far as to branch themselves in a new direction with the villains and characters surrounding Spider-Man.
The departure turned out to be a good thing. Tom Holland has come into his own with the role and won over audiences. The same thing will be necessary for the X-Men now that actors like Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart are no longer playing the roles of Wolverine and Charles Xavier (who wants to contend with Hugh’s Wolverine right after Hugh’s retired from the role anyway?). Although, we’re sure that if they manage to snag the same actor who played X-23 in Logan, no one would complain. The MCU will more than likely choose to focus on other mutants so that they can feel free to use the X-Men without any fear of comparison.
This means characters like Wolverine and Charles would probably be skipped over though, at least for a little while. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart are thought of like those characters the same way Robert Downey Junior is thought of like Tony Stark. Giving audiences a few years to accept the fact that these actors aren’t coming back will let them be more accepting of whoever it is you do give the roles to later on down the line. A good example of this is Joaquin Phoenix's Joker. Heath Ledger was Joker for the longest time, and for good reason, he killed at playing the role, but now that it’s been over a decade, people seem much more keen to watch Joaquin Phoenix try his hand as the Joker later this year.
The X-Men franchise also just has too big of a stigma surrounding it. Marvel wouldn’t want to deal with it. Again, X-Men movies have been less than subpar, and as of phase 3, Marvel seems to have mastered their formula of releasing all around public pleasers. Disney more than likely chose to put out Dark Phoenix because the film was done. They didn’t have to do anything with it. Why waste an already completed film when they could release it and reap whatever profits it might make? They literally have nothing to lose with its release in terms of money, another studio already put in the hard work and resources. They also don’t have to deal with any fan backlash that might come with not releasing the movie. It’s literally a win-win by all accounts.
Wrap Up
Marvel definitely has a way to tie in the X-Men universe with the MCU. If the multiverse concept happens to be real in Spider-Man: Far From Home, they can use that. They can use it to simply say that the Fox universe was just one of many possible alternatives. The two universes could even play off each other: one of them didn’t have mutants, while the other didn’t have Avengers.
This doesn’t seem like the course Marvel will take though. Fox’s X-Men-verse isn’t anything great. It’s more or less mediocre and most of the elements that made it great have retired. To pick and pluck certain actors seems like more work than necessary even if it is possible.
Marvel would prefer to make the X-Men their own. To do that, they’ll have to rebuild the universe from the ground up. That means new actors, new storylines, etc. They’ll prune everything and start over fresh so that their new X-Men movies stand out over the rest.
If anything, should the multiverse be a real thing in the upcoming Spider-Man movie, it’ll be used for Deadpool, not the X-Men. Both of the Deadpool installments that Fox put out made tons of money, and unlike Wolverine, Deadpool never got to finish out his trilogy. Ryan Reynolds has also pretty much established himself as Deadpool same as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, and RDJ as Tony Stark. Making Deadpool apart of the MCU would be the equivalent of Marvel being able to print money whenever they want.
The only foreseeable problem with making Deadpool apart of the MCU is the franchise’s ratings. Deadpool only does as well as he does because his films are rated R -- the same reason Logan worked as well as it did. Deadpool can do whatever he wants with this rating and be true to his character. The MCU, on the other hand, is much cleaner. For instance, you won’t see Captain America using his shield to smash someone’s face into a bloody mess, Deadpool, on the other hand, has already shown his baby balls to the world, so there’s no holds barred where he’s concerned.
Disney will have to figure out the solution to this problem in the future as any Wolverine properties -- such as X-23 storylines -- are going to fall into the pit trap as well. But for the time being, it’s obvious that they’re only releasing Dark Phoenix because they can make a profit off of it, and not because it’s actually something they plan on utilizing in the future. They may, of course, use the potential MCU multiverse to show off little easter eggs for the Fox universe, and that might raise questions as to where the mutants are in the MCU, but that seems to be about the extent that they would be willing to go with using Fox’s X-Men movie properties.
