Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has been in trouble for some time, but if anything holds the key to the saga’s redemption, it’s the X-Men. Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige has a soft spot for the mutant team: not only is he a fan of their comic book adventures, but his first-ever job on a Marvel production came with X-Men in 2000. He’s been working hard to bring mutantkind from the Fox Universe and into the MCU ever since, and his plans for an X-Men reboot, directed by Thunderbolts filmmaker Jake Schreier, are finally taking shape. Before that reset, however, the original X-Men will return for one last hurrah in Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Secret Wars.
As nice as it’ll be to see the team reunited in the MCU, it feels counterintuitive to Feige’s other plans. Fox’s X-Men Universe effectively came to an end in 2019 with Dark Phoenix, but with cameo after cameo since, the MCU has had trouble letting go of the mutants fans know and love. Not even Deadpool & Wolverine, presented as the true closing of a chapter, delivered the definitive end it promised. Instead, Marvel pushed back the expiration date once more, despite fears that yet another X-Men reunion would undermine plans for a much-needed reboot. Feige intends to have his cake and eat it, too: Secret Wars will deliver both a reunion and a reset, not just for the X-Men, but for every character in Marvel’s vast multiverse.
