- If it does happen, bet on the Fantastic Four. The planned reboot by Fox has completely dropped from sight for almost a year.
- If it is Fantastic Four, either they'll have to recast Johnny Storm or there's going to be some major confusion going on. Of course, they could just reboot that franchise entirely - probably for the best, among other things, why in hell did they think Jessica Alba and Chris Evans would make convincing siblings?
- We can say that the new Amazing Spider-Man movie could possibly be in continuity. There were plans to incorporate that film's version of the Oscorp tower into the New York skyline in The Avengers, and the only thing that got in the way of that happening was time constraints.
- None of that is happening as of this moment, but something similar is: Fantastic Four reboot will take place in the same universe as the X-Men movies.
- Nope, Fox decided against that, and the Fantastic Four are now in their own separate universe. It seems that a crossover between the Fantastic Four and the X-Men will be unlikely.
- Confirmed. Spider-Man is in!
- Confirmed, Disney bought 20th Century Fox!
X-Men: First Class is in continuity with the Cinematic Universe
I don't really have any hard evidence of this, it's just an awesome theory since it's patently obvious that First Class is no longer in continuity with the first three X-Men films.- An interesting idea, but sadly unlikely: SHIELD would have been involved ( its not guaranteed canon that the organization existed in the early 60s, but its pretty heavily implied ).
- In the sixties though SHIELD probably isn't the super-powerful organization it would become in the other films. The government office that first houses the team may be a prototype version of SHIELD before it got it's cool name and competent agents.
- All the mutants are the result of Johann Schmidt's research on enhancing the (incomplete) Super Soldier Serum he got from Erskine. That would tie it closer to the Ultimate Marvel universe, and explain why A) mutants are so rare in "First Class" B) why the American government is so scared of mutants in "First Class" they'd Macross Missile Massacre a group that just saved their civilization on a whim. Cap is pretty much a human WMD, and would have been capable of all but winning the war on his own had he not been lost with Skull's flying wing. Mutants? Final Solution would be impolite, but Jack Bauer would probably execute the lot of them if they had that potential and wouldn't wear American uniforms.
- Which goes against every thematic establishment in the combined setting. Still. Try again.
- Fits nicely with General Ross' faction of the U.S. government. They deliberately antagonize human nitroglycerin bottles like Banner and give Personality Powers to Sociopathic Soldiers like Blonsky.
- The MCU and the Ultimate Universe are not one in the same. The MCU is a blend of 616 and Ultimates, but the character origins are closer to 616 than to Ultimates. Never mind the impossibility of the timing with respect to some of the mutants in XM:FC being born before the Super Soldier Serum was created. Note that in the deleted scenes, Ross' own superior thought he was obsessed. Again, distinction between "unethical experiment that balloons" versus "attempted or successful genocide." Broad Strokes comes into play (sometimes often), but all of the current X-Men films are intended to inhabit more-or-less the same universe and continuity.
- At the moment, the only thing contradicting this would be the presense of Quicksilver in the X-Men films, since a), it's different from the one that was introduced in Age of Ultron, and b), while that one does have a sister, nothing indicates if said sister is the Scarlet Witch or Polaris (or someone else entierly).
- Confirmed. The First Class continuity is the same as the original X-Men trilogy, with Sir Patrick Stewart as Xavier and Sir Ian Mc Kellen as Magneto. The second film in the First Class saga, X-Men: Days Of Future Past, establishes that they manage to erase that timeline, but it also establishes that the new timeline will still lead to a Xavier played by Sir Patrick Stewart, among other such familiarity. The second Doctor Strange film, with scenes that take place in a different universe within the MCU, has shown Sir Patrick Stewart's Xavier who is aware of Wanda Maximoff (who is the daughter of his "old friend").
The new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon takes place in the MCU
- Since the rights to a Spider-Man movie belong to Sony at the moment, the new show is a way for Marvel to introduce Spider-Man into this continuity without making a movie. It fits considering that when Nick Fury was telling Peter that even Iron Man was a rookie at one point, the scene that shows next is of Iron Man is flying around his garage and smashes into one of his cars, similar to the first Iron Man movie.
- Jossed. Spider-Man now has his own movie in the MCU.
- Also, Ultimate Spider-Man shares the same universe with Avengers Assemble, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and the new Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) cartoon.
The X-Men and Fantastic 4 do exist in the MCU, just not the versions we've seen
Including a younger version of the X-Men with stronger continuity and a Fantastic 4 that doesn't suck. (Hey, someone had to say it)- Well, you do have Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch showing up in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron...
- Confirmed, although also the ones we have seen.
The MCU exists in Fox's original Fantastic Four continuity
After getting burned-out as a hero, the Human Torch gets into acting, and is cast in the Captain America films. The current X-Men and Spider-Man film continuities will cross over with the MCU through the help of Man-Thing
Let's face it, so much has happened in all three universes that it's pretty impossible to just hand wave it and say they always existed in the same continuity. The only way they could interact is through dimension hopping. It was confirmed on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Man-Thing exists in the MCU, and it can be assumed that he's still the guardian of the Nexus of All Realities. If something goes out of whack with him or it, characters from any of the universes could find each other in different worlds.- Spider-Man is a Continuity Reboot in the MCU. What happens to X-Men remains to be seen.
- Confirmed. The Spider-Man films of Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire are all canonically universes within the MCU multiverse. So are the X-Men.
If and when Marvel Studios gains the rights for Spider-Man, they will use Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker.
They will want to get Spider-Man into the universe as soon as humanly possible, but they wouldn't want it to be just another rehash of Peter Parker. The Amazing Spider-Man producers have stated that they have no intention to bring Miles into their continuity, which means the MCU will be able to adapt a very different character while still being able to utilize most of the Spider-Man mythos.- Jossed. It's still Peter Parker.
If Spider-Man does join the MCU, there will not be an origin movie.
They did it with Hulk, who had a movie come out 5 years before from a different company. The intro could even begin with Peter recapping his origin real quick before moving on.- Confirmed. They wanted to opt out on an origin story. Although they do get the origin stories of Andrew Garfield's duology and Tobey Maguire's trilogy as part of the MCU now.
Spider-Man's origin could be tied to the Hulk
Bruce Banner was experimenting with Gamma Radiation's effect on biological life forms, right? Maybe one of his early test subjects was a spider that escaped and bit a young high school student... The MCU is what happens to the X-Men universe after Scarlet Witch says "No more mutants."
Explaining why the MCU has no mutants.- Jossed. The MCU has mutants.
The Amazing Spider-Man is canonical to The Avengers
Unfortunately we have to face that the X-Men will not cross over with the Avengers, which has been confirmed by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. saying that there is no such thing as mutants or telepaths. However, nothing has ever contradicted that The Amazing Spider-Man could take place in the same universe as The Avengers, but following the very separate storyline of a New York based street-level hero. The fact that they made attempts and plans to sneak Oscorp's skyscraper into The Avengers, despite the fact that they were not successful, should be proof enough, but there's also the scene in Amazing Spider-Man 2 where Harry recounts how weird New York has gotten since he left; he doesn't say an alien invasion almost happened, but a single lizard attack and the existence of Spider-Man doesn't justify this comment. I suppose this might end up being contradicted when the Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones series come out, or when the Sinister Six movies start happening, but as of right now, it seems safe to say that there is a version of Spider-Man in the MCU.- Confirmed: The Amazing Spider-Man is in continuity; Spider-Man No Way Home introduced Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire as each being the Peter Parker, and therefore Spider-Man as well, of his own universe, putting all of their movies into the MCU.
At least one non-MCU character will crossover by Phase 4.
Disney/Marvel apparently has MCU movies planned all the way to 2028, meaning we'll likely see more than just 3 Phases. By the fourth Phase however, interest and excitement in the series will likely have peaked and Disney/Marvel will have to come up with a way to keep the hype going. With all the money the films are printing it probably won't be hard in a few years to offer some sort of lucrative deal with either or both Sony and Fox to bring in a few appearances by Spidey or the X-Men.- Confirmed for Phase 3. Spider-Man's film rights are now shared between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures. While it's not the Andrew Garfield version of the character that's appearing, it is a franchise that Marvel Studios does not completely own.
- Confirmed in the sense that there are characters crossing over who were not in the MCU before they cross over. But the very fact that they have crossed over, makes them MCU now. The live-action films (but not Into The Spider-Verse, sorry) made by Fox and Sony using Marvel comic characters are now part of the multiverse of the MCU.
Depending on how well Disney's Big Hero 6 adaptation does, other Marvel franchises will also get similar adaptations which may be tangentially linked to the main Marvel Cinematic Universe
Let's be honest, this is our best bet of seeing a movie starring the likes of Howard the Duck, Slapstick, Nextwave, or other such series. And depending on how popular they are they might end up linked to the Main movieverse somehow. Disney will either have complete control over (or will have the ability to cross over with) all Marvel properties by the year 2020
Disney is always willing to shell out money as long as they know it will make them more money in the future - it's why they bought Marvel (and now, Lucasfilm) in the first place. The franchises of importance would be Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, while other lesser-known franchises that the company does not have the rights to will likely be bought over time. See the next 3 WMG theories to see why.- So far, the X-Men and the Fantastic 4 have been returned to Marvel via Disney buying Fox, but the Hulk's rights still remains with Universal at this time (Marvel can still use the characters if they aren't the title characters - hence why Thor Ragnarok was able to adapt Planet Hulk - but a Hulk 2 or a She-Hulk solo movie isn't happening for a while), and while Sony did let Marvel use Spidey himself, some of the other Spiderman characters (Venom, Black Cat, Silver Sable) seem to be off limits for Marvel (since Sony is yet again trying to use the license).
Disney will gain the rights to Spider-Man before or shortly after Avengers: Infinity War
Sony does not have the television rights to the character, the Spider-Man movies aren't bringing in as much money as they used to, and Sony is in serious financial trouble, with the company having a 78% chance of going under in 2016
. Sony's film properties are less profitable with many of their movies being relatively small-scale titles that earn modest grosses, with the Smurfs, Amazing Spider-Man, and animated films being more largely successful. However, given that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed to meet Sony's financial expectations in spite of doing well (they expected the movie to make over a billion dollars, but it only made a little over seven hundred million dollars, and they weren't able to make any money off of the merchandise due to Disney's legal framework), and Guardians Of The Galaxy was able to top Spider-Man's domestic gross in three weeks. The spin-offs that Sony has planned may also underperform due to featuring unknown characters and decreasing interest from audiences - not to mention that the first of these movies would come out the year that Sony is projected to go bankrupt, unless a financial miracle occurs. To keep the company afloat, Sony will ultimately end up selling their film properties to focus on electronics and video games (their more stable sources of income) and Disney will pay up to get the rights to one of the most popular superheroes that Marvel has to offer. The Amazing Spider-Man Series will be wrapped up, and Spider-Man will undergo another reboot. Given that Sony does not have the rights to television Spider-Man properties, it's entirely possible that Spidey himself could show up in a show and eventually work his way up into a movie.- Might not even require Sony to give it up. Sony and Marvel get along better than Marvel and Fox, and there are a lot of rumors the two might come to an agreement to do crossovers. It's the most likely of the three to go back, even in part, in the near future.
- Support for this can be found in the form of a rumor from HitFix. It's not clear if the Spider-Man that would hypothetically show up in an MCU movie would be the same one as the Spider-Man from the TASM universe, however.
- Jossed. Marvel/Disney still do not have the rights in 2023, 5 years after Infinity War. What's even worse, is that not long after Spider-Man: Far From Home came our, the 2 film studios nearly scrapped Spider-Man: No Way Home over money disputes.
Disney will gain the rights to Fantastic Four before or shortly after Avengers: Infinity War
The amount of backlash to Fantastic Four (2015) before footage of the movie has even been released is nothing short of astounding, and given that a number of fans (which the movie desperately needs the attention of to succeed) are boycotting the movie for not being a Disney-produced film, and that the film is going to be sandwiched between Jurassic World, Inside Out (which shares a release date with Fantastic Four and will likely garner a larger audience due to being a Pixar film), and Ted 2, it's not likely that the movie is going to do well. Marvel's canceling of the various Fantastic Four comics (which themselves have not sold nearly as well in recent years) could also cause interest in the team, and thereby the movie, to dwindle. With this in mind, it's possible that the planned sequel to the film could get cancelled if the reboot fails to find an audience. Fox would more likely be willing sell the property to Disney considering that they haven't had much success with it in the past than to make a sequel to a movie that comparatively may not do any better.- Fox also has issues with Marvel that might just cause them to hold out on returning it. But it's more likely to be let go than any mutants.
- Update: The movie's been released, and the backlash has been spectacular. So unless Fox want to make themselves look like idiots, the rights will probably find themselves heading back to Marvel soon enough.
- Disney bought Fox. So confirmed.
Disney and Fox will eventually work out a deal to have Avengers VS X-Men crossovers
As it stands, the X-Men franchise is the only non-Disney Marvel property that has a stable financial future, with X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, and X-Men: Days of Future Past all being profitable and serving as modest successes for Fox. Fox is also able to make money off of merchandise for the films, as opposed to the situation regarding Sony and Spider-Man, and Marvel has expressed no interest in cancelling any major X-Men titles due to how much money they pull in. It seems likely that Fox will make spin-offs featuring the characters that they own given the freedom they have after the Reset Button applied by Days, and that they will be able to have a greater degree of success with creating a shared universe than Sony has had with Spider-Man - not to mention that, this late into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the X-Men movie series, integrating the whole mutant ensemble would prove to be more trouble than it is worth for Disney if they simply bought the franchise. As such, Disney will likely reach a compromise with Fox to cross the separate continuities over in some sort of Crisis Crossover while letting Fox retain the rights to the X-Men and the associated characters (indeed, as they have done with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver). Disney will probably buy the properties out eventually, but for now it seems that they are willing to focus on their other characters until then. If the Fantastic Four rights return to Marvel...
The Four will be re-imagined as Inhumans in order to fit better into the world. It won't be an origin story, with the team having already formed (perhaps somewhere between Avengers: Infinity War and Inhumans). And to avoid repetition, Namor will be the first villain (or anti-villain with another villain in the background) they face with Doctor Doom not showing up until a potential sequel.- Doubtful they'll be reimagined as Inhumans (though they'll probably have encounters with them, like in the comics). Like with Spider-Man, their origin will be relegated into a short scene. But whether it'll involve cosmic rays (like the comics and the 2005 movie) or the Negative Zone (like Ultimate Marvel and the 2015 movie) remains to be seen; the former might involve the Silver Surfer and Galactus, like in Heroes Reborn.
Star Wars and Indiana Jones are in the Marvel Cinamatic Universe
Captain America: The First Avenger has a throw away line about the Führer digging for trinkets in the desert. This is a dirrect reference to Indiana Jones. The aliens and droid runes in Indiana Jones imply it is set in the same universe as Star Wars. Clearly Nick Fury is a descendant of Mace Windu.- Perhaps, but don't expect crossovers. The MCU is set in the present. Star Wars took place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
The original Spider-Man Trilogy takes place in the same universe as the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point before The Avengers.
It kind of makes sense. The Human-Enhancer Formula that Oscorp was developing in the first film was yet another attempt to recreate the super soldier formula. And just like with the Hulk, it didn't work out exactly right. The powered armor that the military almost invested in instead of Oscorp's stuff? Someone else trying to cash in on Stark's inventions. Oscorp investing in Dr. Octavius's fusion-based energy reactor? They are trying to match the arc reactors with their own power generating solution. As for why Spider-Man doesn't run into any of these other heroes? They aren't in New York at the moment. Tony Stark lives on the west coast, Steve Rogers is frozen, Bruce Banner is on the run in South America and/or Asia, Thor was in Asgard or hanging out in the desert with his new friends, and Natasha and Clint were doing whatever awesome spies and assassins do when working for S.H.I.E.L.D. As for why no one in S.H.I.E.L.D. ever considered Spider-Man as part of the Avengers Initiative, they probably did briefly and dismissed him as a possibility for being 1) too young, 2) more territorially-based than the others, or 3) someone didn't think he'd fit into the group dynamic for some reason.- Confirmed. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Sam Raimi trilogy, as well as Marc Webb's TASMS, are from alternative realities.
The MCU will never have mutants
Someone has to bring the voice of reason here. Even if the rights to the X-Men eventually return to Marvel, they will likely keep them as independent franchises. Because:1) The MCU is already convoluted enough as it is, with its large cast. Adding new individual characters is one thing, adding a whole new race of characters into the mix is simply overkill.
2) The universes themselves (timeline of events, organizations, materials, technologies, etc.) are in most cases contradictory between themselves, and can not be mixed. In the MCU Iron Man was the first prominent "super hero" of modern times, and The Unmasqued World was caused by the battle of New York (an alien invasion, two mythological gods, Captain America is back to life, Hulk smashs, etc.) How can that be reconcile that with films where The Unmasqued World took place back in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and by the 80s the weird looking mutants were allowed to come and go as they pleased?
3) Yes, the inconsistencies can be fixed by rebooting the X-Men franchise, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, or both. Yes, sure. Kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.
4) If the films themselves are not enough, the animated series proved that the X-Men is a well populated franchise of its own, and does not really need to be integrated into a bigger one.
5) The Franchise Original Sin of the X-Men is that the Fantastic Racism against mutants does not make sense in a universe where other super heroes are treated like celebrities (like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, in-universe). Most adaptations skip this problem by simply having the mutations as the sole origin of superpowers, and thus having all super-powered people (heroes and villains alike) equally hated and/or feared by society. They may make an exception here and there for aliens or Juggernaut, but as long as they avoid a group of non-mutants super heroes being the "Big Good" around, the problem is solved. If mutants are incorporated into the MCU, that problem will take place.
- The points you raised are valid, but I think it'd be a lot easier to resolve than you make it. The X-Men films barely follow their own timeline and already retconned itself once, so something like a 'House of M'-style retcon by Wanda is all that's really needed to bring mutants into the fold. The Fantastic Racism can still be factor since Civil War was just all about the public distrusting superhumans. Really the only point that concerns me is rapidly expanding the cast that much more, but Marvel have done a solid enough job with handling a large line-up.
- And yet, they will be joined.
- Jossed. As of the second Doctor Strange, Xavier is known to exist. He is in an alternate reality with its own Wanda. America Chavez also exists, and has her mutant ability to travel through universes. Even the main MCU universe version of Ms Marvel is a mutant.
Fox is considering a deal with Marvel to to share the rights of the Fantastic Four and associated characters...
- But are holding out until Spider-Man: Homecoming is released to approach the deal; any sort of move with the Fantastic Four franchise will be a prospect met with reluctance after Fant4stic, and so Fox will not want to pursue such a deal with Marvel unless they have concrete evidence that such a co-studio production can be successful. If Homecoming is a critical and financial success, expect the announcement of Marvel/Fox deal within the year afterwards.
- Moot point. Disney bought Fox.
The Ghost Rider movies take place in the MCU.
The MCU version of Johnny Blaze appeared in the flashback in "The Good Samaritan". His blazing skull is similar to to how it looked in the first movie. Though he still sports red flames, which could mean only the first movie is canon. The old X-Men will be canon as an alternate universe
The old X-Men are pretty popular, so the MCU might want to keep them. Additionally, Spider-Man: Far From Home introduced alternate dimensions. Finally, this would also prevent the troubles from having the Avengers be celebrities while the mutants are persecuted; the different universes treat superhumans differently. Maybe one of the Avengers shows up in the X-Men universe and ends up persecuted, and one of the X-Men ends up in the main universe and is overjoyed to be treated well for once. The various pre-MCU Marvel movies and shows being Exiled from Continuity is a direct result of He Who Remains using Alioth to end the Multiversal War and clean up the mess caused by The Council of Kangs.
It wasn't just a bunch of random alternate universes being eliminated by He Who Remains and Kang. It was all the previous attempts to adapt Marvel to film and TV. Think about it, almost every one of them has or mentions the X-Men and Fantastic Four, and by extension, a Kang. The Multiversal War was a result of Kang and his Council attempting to rule the Multiverse. It ended when He Who Remains weaponized Alioth to condense it down to one timeline. It makes perfect sense. Especially when you consider a timeline/variant being pruned doesn't kill them. Maybe at first he experimented with just isolating them to their own timelines before ultimately deciding it all had to go because the council was just too dangerous.