Previous rumours have claimed that the events of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars will lead to a "soft reboot" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there's been a lot of speculation that this reset will facilitate the introduction of the X-Men.
We have seen some characters from the 20th Century Fox era in the MCU already, but the likes of Charles Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart), Beast (Kelsey Grammar) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) all appeared in alternate Multiverse timelines.
Earlier today, Kevin Feige spoke about Marvel Studios' plans for the X-Men during the opening of the Disney APAC Content Showcase in Singapore.
"I think you will see that continue in our next few movies with some X-Men players that you might recognize. Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men."
According to scooper MTTSH, this will be accomplished by the creation of "a new universe where Mutants/X-Men have always existed in the MCU."
If accurate, this wouldn't exactly be a huge surprise. We have seen several reality-warping events in the MCU at this stage, most notably the "Blip" (or Decimation) caused by Thanos and Tony Stark's reversal in Avengers: Endgame.
Secret Wars is believed to bring multiple characters and timelines together, so it's reasonable to assume that an attempt to stop the Incursions from, say, the Scarlet Witch (in a kind of reverse House of M move) could result in the creation of an entirely new MCU.
If this is how the X-Men/Mutants are to be introduced, how would you feel about it?
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027. Both films will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Have another look at some photos Downey Jr. shared to Instagram after the big reveal along with a new look at the Doom mask via Phase Hero below.