Kevin Feige: ‘It Will Be a Very Long Time’ Until X-Men Join the MCU

Take it to the bank, the X-Men will not be joining the MCU for at least five more years. That’s what Marvel head Kevin Feige told i09 earlier today:

“It’ll be a while,” Feige said when asked about bringing the X-Men into the MCU. “It’s all just beginning and the five-year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of that was set. So really it’s much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back. But it will be a very long time.”

So what is this “five-year-plan”? I presume it includes “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Captain Marvel 2,” “Black Panther 2,” “Black Widow,” “Shang-Chi,” “Doctor Strange 2,” and “Eternals.”

“The slate that we’re building over the next five years [is] not apples to apples,” Feige said when asked how the next phase of MCU titles compares to the past. “It is two very distinct things and I hope they’ll feel very distinct. But there is a similar mentality going into it, which is ‘How can we continue to tell stories with some of the characters that audiences already know and love in a unique way, in a different way, in surprising way, of which we have a lot of plans and ideas and work already going into it?’ [Then] ‘How can we introduce new characters that even hardcore fans, comic fans, have barely known or barely heard of.’ That’s really exciting, too.”