MarvelBlog News for October 8th, 2023

Are the Mutants coming to the MCU soon? All signs point to yes.

We’ll discuss this upcoming X-factor in the latest MarvelBlog News.

A Mutant Plan Emerges

Here’s a statement that proves how much the pandemic messed with the concept of time.

Disney released Dark Phoenix in 2019, which was just four years ago.

Film executives recognized the film was a clunker and hid it in plain sight.

In April 2019, Marvel released a little movie called Avengers: Endgame.

On June 7^th, 2019, Disney released a former Fox production, Dark Phoenix.

Ostensibly, this title concluded the Fox X-Men franchise, but it was such a debacle that few noticed or cared.

Disney had intended this strategy all along, anticipating that Endgame would suck up all the comic book oxygen that summer.

Still, at the 2019 D23 Expo in Anaheim, Disney confirmed Phase Four’s timeline.

Also, Kevin Feige and his team indicated that other projects like Fantastic Four and X-Men were in the early stages of development.

At the time, plans called for Marvel to assemble an entirely new team of Avengers.

Sam Wilson’s Captain America would lead a squad featuring younger versions of Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Also, characters like Shang-Chi and Ms. Marvel would join the squad as well.

Eventually, the updated Avengers lineup would anchor one or two movies, the de facto sequels to Endgame.

Once that happened, Marvel planned to debut the First Family, the Fantastic Four.

Once all those characters had carved out their roles in the MCU, Marvel executives believed they could start over again with X-Men.

In other words, early plans called for Marvel to kick the can down the road on The Mutants to wash away the stink of failure of Dark Phoenix.

Even that plan came with flaws. Remember that New Mutants debuted only three years ago.

The 2023 Change in X-Plans

Understandably, plenty changed during the pandemic.

At multiple points, New Mutants wasn’t even slotted for theatrical release.

Eventually, Disney took the approach of, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

The answer proved to be, “New Mutants could earn less than $50 million worldwide.”

Still, the film’s obscurity worked in Disney’s favor. It could reboot The Mutants without fans decrying the loss of Anya-Taylor Joy.

If nobody knew the actress had played Magik, they’d never miss her, right?

Frankly, that’s the reality for plenty of X-Men fans, even the loyal ones.

Fans remember either 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse or 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past as the most recent Mutants movie.

Even if Marvel started filming another X-Men film today, it wouldn’t debut for nearly a decade after the last (memorable) one.

Meanwhile, the MCU has taken a media drubbing for some lackluster recent titles like Secret Invasion and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Fans are starting to lose patience with the MCU’s struggles during Phase Four and Phase Five.

This knowledge has forced Marvel executives to take a different approach regarding the MCU’s future.

Frankly, Disney needs more hits. And even when Fox produced some lousy X-movies, most of them made a lot of money.

Marvel producers and Disney bean counters have spent the Hollywood strikes thinking about what comes next.

Wisely, everyone agrees that it’s (well past) time to plan the integration of The Mutants into the MCU.

What’s Happening with X-Men?

Oddly, Deadpool 3 will work as the jumping-off point for these changes.

Nobody at Marvel is even trying to deny the rampant rumors regarding the film’s plot.

Deadpool 3 will reunite many of the featured players from Fox’s Marvel films save for the characters from X-Men: First Class.

 

Most importantly, Hugh Jackman will return as Wolverine and, if reports are correct, he’s not back exclusively for this film.

Instead, Jackman will play Wolverine again in additional MCU titles, possibly up to the next Avengers movie.

While other reports suggest that Disney has already chosen its new Wolverine, those rumors don’t necessarily conflict.

Still, Disney and Marvel are clearly ready to make some money, and the ace in the hole is an X-Men title.

That film with Jackman as Wolverine is all but guaranteed to earn $1 billion in box office and much more if it’s good.

So, Marvel is ready to take meetings about Disney’s first X-Men production.

The idea is that once Marvel chooses the people behind the cameras, the writer(s) and the director, it’ll start casting.

In that regard, an X-Men movie isn’t that far behind Fantastic Four, which still hasn’t announced its cast.

We think we know who is writing and directing. Until principal photography begins, those things aren’t guaranteed, though.

The belief is that Marvel will hire a writer in early 2024 and go from there.

Since we’re already in October, the actors remain on strike, and Hollywood typically shuts down in December anyway, I believe that timeline.

The most pressing question as we head into 2024 is which Mutants will comprise the MCU’s X-Men team.

Then, we get into casting those roles, which could take several months.

Still, the long-hibernating project is finally ready to move forward, which is all we’ve wanted to hear, right?

Marvel Miscellany

This week’s other big story is financial in nature.

During the pandemic, I often referenced Disney’s struggle to get Marvel films exhibited in China.

When CEO Bob Iger returned to Disney, the relationship dethawed after a frosty couple of years.

In 2023, Disney has had better luck with its Marvel releases screening in China.

Now, Disney and Marvel have scored a coup. The November release of The Marvels will debut day and date in China.

Just as importantly, that release date occurs during a Chinese national holiday called Golden Week, which demonstrably boosts box office totals for all releases.

While the news may not seem significant, it’ll add tens of millions of dollars to the film’s opening weekend box office.

That may be the difference in how people will report the film’s performance.

In terms of actual dollars, Marvel’s profits on Chinese releases are minimal, but few reporters understand this fact when reporting box office.

Meanwhile, director Scott Derrickson detailed his rationale for leaving the Dr. Strange sequel. Here are his thoughts:

“We had real creative differences. You know, the movie I wanted to make and how I wanted to make it was different.

“It was just increasingly obvious that we were pulling against each other.

“And that’s how you make a really bad movie, I think.

“When the producer or the studio and the filmmaker are making different movies, you end up with a monstrosity and, you know, that’s why I had to bounce.”

That’s a perfectly reasonable explanation and a rare example of actual creative differences causing a director to leave a project.

Finally, I’m saving most Loki season two discussion for next week’s article, but what did you think about the premiere?

 

 

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