Could Dark Phoenix Box-Office Bomb Affected Why Marvel Will Let Fantastic Four Debut First?

Marvel is focusing on launching the Fantastic Four over X-Men. Fans can expect Fantastic Four to debut first out of the acquired Fox properties. Ever since Disney Studios has acquired 20th Century Fox, there were a lot of speculations among fans about the characters that will debut in the MCU first. Most of MCU Phase 4 is already filled out which is why some people are thinking that perhaps Fantastic Four and X-Men will no longer join the larger universe until the MCU hits Phase 5.

During the San Diego Comic-Con 2019, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige stated they had plans for those aforementioned properties but they ran out of time to prepare for the presentations at the big Hall H.

Given the status of the ongoing pandemic, there were a few shake-ups in Marvel's slate for their Phase 4 projects. A lot of their projects moved around due to the changes in the release dates. Disney recently had their Investors Day where they unveiled many surprises for the future of the MCU. One of the major announcements is that Spider-Man director Jon Watts will direct Fantastic Four.

Credit: 20th Century Fox

There was no news about Marvel's mutants and if they are working on X-Men. Disney and Marvel haven't clarified as to why they didn't start or announce any plans for X-Men, one of the main factors might be the proximity of movies released.

Before the MCU acquired X-Men, Fox released X-Men: Dark Phoenix as the final installment of Fox's X-Men Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately, X-Men: Dark Phoenix received a negative reception and the enormous box office disappointment was too big to ignore. It is most probable that Marvel recognized that releasing a new X-Men too close to the Dark Phoenix release in 2019 can be very risky to push through. Meanwhile, the last time the Fantastic Four appeared on the big screen was in 2015. That leaves a huge amount of time by the time they show up in the MCU.

Fantastic Four has no updates yet on the casting and plot details.

Also Read: Marvel Head Kevin Feige Hints at Wanda Maximoff's Mutant Origin