Last summer, Deadpool & Wolverine took us back to the X-Men Universe for an unforgettable team-up. We'd expected and hoped the movie to feature some familiar faces from the franchise's past; instead, the spotlight was put on other pre-MCU Marvel properties like Fantastic Four, Blade, and Daredevil.
When the credits rolled, a video played reflecting on the legacy of 20th Century Fox's Marvel movies. However, by far its biggest achievement was it somehow making that era of storytelling look...good.
X-Men, X2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and X-Men: First Class are all titles that have their fair share of fans, and objectively speaking, they're far from bad. At the same time, they were also pretty poor adaptations of the comics - Bryan Singer's disdain for the source material is no secret - and the less said about X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Dark Phoenix (to name just a few), the better.
The point is, no matter what Deadpool & Wolverine's credits or this clear nostalgia bait suggests, the X-Men franchise - where Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige got his start in Hollywood - was neither particularly beloved nor an era worth remembering.
It stands to reason then that Marvel Studios is making a mistake by throwing Patrick Stewart (Professor X), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique), James Marsden (Cyclops), Kelsey Grammer (Beast), Deadpool & Wolverine's Channing Tatum (Gambit), and no doubt plenty more familiar faces from X-Men, into Avengers: Doomsday.
Not necessarily.
Yes, the vast majority of fans cried out in joy when the Disney/Fox merger ended the latter studio's time in charge of Marvel's mutants. Despite that, both The Marvels and Deadpool & Wolverine have offered a glimpse at how these characters can and will evolve in the MCU, both tonally and visually. There's something undeniably exciting about seeing the actors listed above in comic-accurate costumes and portrayed in a way that respects the source material instead of shying away from it.
An argument could be made that Marvel Studios should have introduced a new team of X-Men either before or during Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, similar to what we're getting from The Fantastic Four: First Steps. After all, these big returns do somewhat overshadow the actors who will inherit the roles a few years from now.
Love or hate it, we're in the thick of the Multiverse Saga and, if Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Deadpool & Wolverine have proven anything, it's that people want to see actors and characters they never expected to meet interact on screen (not stunt casting like John Krasinki's forgettable turn as Mister Fantastic).
As of now, all signs point to Avengers: Doomsday pitting the heroes of Earth-616 against the denizens of the X-Men Universe for a loose take on Avengers vs. X-Men. That wouldn't have had anywhere near the same impact had it been with a new cast, and this way, we get to see these characters go out on a high before they're inevitably rebooted and reintroduced.
Ultimately, Marvel Studios is relying heavily on nostalgia, but where better to do that than in the Multiverse Saga? If the result is anything close to seeing the three live-action Spider-Men swing into action together in No Way Home, then we're in for a treat next summer.
Of course, for those now ready to move on from the Multiverse - and the concept has grown stale - Avengers: Doomsday is another movie relaying heavily on the past and "Oh, look it's [Insert Name Here]" to sell itself. If regular moviegoers aren't enthused by seeing the Avengers (especially a team lacking the original Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Iron Man right now) and X-Men share the screen, then this could be a huge mistake.
It could also be a triumph, so all eyes are now on the Russo Brothers to deliver the sort of greatness we got from them between 2014 and 2019. Surely, they can fix Fox's X-Men, right?