Kevin Feige Suggests the ’X-Men’ Movies Are MCU Canon
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has suggested that the X-Men and Fantastic Four films can already be considered canon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks to the introduction of the multiverse.
In a recent interview with Collider, Feige indicated that Disney’s decision to acquire 21st Century Fox didn’t interfere with the MCU timeline, especially when it came to bringing the multiverse concept into the picture.
“I think the Ancient One mentions [the multiverse] in Doctor Strange when she’s taking Stephen Strange through that mind-warping journey. And it was always one of the most powerful storytelling tools in the comics. One you have to wield carefully because it can get overwhelming,” explained Feige. “One that now with the 80-year history of the comics, now we have a 20-plus history of the movies, and there are enough characters that we can start playing with it that way.”
While Feige refers to a “20 plus history” of Marvel movies, it should be noted that the MCU — a series of interconnected films that play by the same set of continuity rules — only began 13 years ago in 2008 with Iron Man. This means that Feige is suggesting that the Marvel films before that, namely things like Fantastic Four and the X-Men franchises, can technically be considered canon in the MCU.
The multiverse concept has slowly been trickling into Marvel movies and TV series for a while now. As Feige mentioned, the theory popped up in Doctor Strange, and more recently, the multiverse played a significant part in Loki and What If...? And we can expect to see more multiversal crossover in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with appearances by villains from Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spidey flicks.
Spider-Man: No Way Home arrives in theaters on December 17.