Marvel rules out the X-Men’s arrival in the MCU

Don’t be expecting the X-Men to show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon.

Marvel fans have been curious about the arrival of the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a very long time. It’s come up in conversations long before it was ever a possibility, but ever since Disney’s acquisition of Fox, it only seemed like a matter of time until they arrived.

In a way, it still is. Phase Four of the MCU featured multiple references and nods to the team, with the first two confirmed mutant characters, a Wolverine reference, and even an appearance from Patrick Stewart’s Professor X. Those references are set to continue as we know that Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine will have a starring role in Deadpool 3.

But that’s just the beauty of the multiverse (and more specifically, the multiverse saga). Any character from any universe can show up when the story requires it. The question is: When will the MCU’s main X-Men show up, starting their own new story? As reported by The Direct, a recent update from Marvel writer Jeff Loveness suggests that could be a lot further away than fans hoped.

Will the X-Men appear in the Marvel Multiverse Saga?

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness, who will return to write the upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, appeared on ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero podcast and discussed the possibility of the future appearances of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. When asked if we could see connections to either team in the major MCU movie, he answered:

"“No, I think all that stuff is pretty far away. I mean, I know they’re making Fantastic Four, but that’s its own thing. So, no, I mean, look, I’m the biggest X-Men guy in the world… No, no, no. I think that’s being saved for a bit. But, you know, these Avengers are in trouble. They got a lot going on with Kang. They got more than enough to handle.”"

This is quite a significant update given that it’s coming from the writer of The Kang Dynasty, a movie that is very much seen as the first part of the Multiverse Saga’s endgame. Not only does it suggest that the X-Men won’t have appeared by then, it sounds like we won’t be seeing them (in a significant capacity at least) before the end of the Multiverse Saga.

Of course, we’ll still have our standalone references to the Fox X-Men saga in Deadpool 3 and perhaps other multiversal titles, but it sounds like Marvel Studios is playing the long game when it comes to officially introducing a new version of Marvel’s Mightiest Mutants into the MCU.

Would you like to see the X-Men appear before, during, or after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty? Could the Multiverse Saga pave the way for their arrival in Phase 7? Let us know in the comments below!