Four years after Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige teased the X-Men's MCU arrival at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the Marvel movie timeline at some point in the next few years, possibly around the ten-year anniversary of the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. While such a long wait may be frustrating for Marvel fans, it makes sense from a creative and logistical perspective.

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The Disney-Fox Acquisition Affected When Marvel's X-Men Development Could Start

First announced on December 14, 2017, Disney's acquisition of Fox and all its assets concluded on March 20, 2019. However, not only was Marvel unable to materialize any MCU X-Men introduction plans — the studio couldn't even start to outline any basic ideas involving Fox's former properties until all the legal minutiae were settled. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige could only tease the mutants' eventual arrival at San Diego Comic Con 2019, and plans for the MCU's next three Phases after the Infinity Saga needed to move ahead with characters and stories that didn't explicitly involve the X-Men.

MCU Phase 4 And The Multiverse Saga Was Already Planned

Marvel's plans after the Infinity Saga didn't depend on Disney's acquisition of Fox and the X-Men's integration into the MCU. By 2019, blueprints for the whole Multiverse Saga must have been established, or at least outlined, in order to begin development on Phase 4 projects and to include certain multiversal set-ups in Avengers: Endgame. The concept of the multiverse and the return of previous non-MCU Marvel actors are as exciting as the mutants' introduction, and they certainly required thorough planning years before the Disney-Fox deal was concluded.

MCU movies and shows are closely interconnected, but they're often not as strictly mapped out as they seem. For instance, a large part of Iron Man's script was improvised, the Inhumans were originally going to play a role in Avengers: Infinity War, and Captain America: Civil War added Spider-Man fairly late in the game. However, all the MCU projects that followed Avengers: Endgame couldn't have hinged on the Disney-Fox acquisition. Had it fallen through with Marvel all in on the mutants, the whole franchise would have needed to rush plans for an entire saga in record time.

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Marvel Needs To Get The X-Men Right

The MCU has put its main focus on the multiverse for Phases 4 through 6, with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars aiming to sur the success of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile, Marvel has plenty of time to design an X-Men introduction that meets expectations, possibly in the form of a Mutant Saga beginning in the MCU's Phase 7. Not only does the extended wait for MCU mutants continue to raise fan expectations, but Fox's past failures with the X-Men property also call for Marvel Studios' much better management. A solid MCU X-Men release after Fox's disappointing conclusion to a nearly 20-year-old franchise is only fair.

Besides, the MCU already set up the X-Men's MCU introduction with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's mutant teases as early as Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Multiverse Saga is also raising expectations around MCU mutants with the return of beloved mutants from external universes such as Patrick Stewart's Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and both Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in Deadpool 3. With so much anticipation behind the MCU's mutants, the MCU's X-Men will need to make an impression as soon as they officially debut.