With Kevin Feige dividing his attention between theatrical and streaming releases during the first two Phases of the Multiverse Saga, it's fair to say this era of storytelling has been more hit-or-miss than most would have liked.
There's still been far more good than bad but several titles have underperformed both critically and commercially. Meanwhile, an apparent lack of direction has frustrated fans (Kang the Conqueror being ditched for Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is among the biggest changes we've seen over the past year or two).
It's widely believed that the Mutant Saga is next for Marvel Studios and it could be what sets this franchise back on the right track alongside the upcoming Avengers movies which precede it, Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Today, scooper @MyTimeToShineH brings word on what the Mutant Saga currently looks like. Apparently, we're getting one Earth moving forward with both the Fantastic Four and mutants finally part of it.
This suggests that Marvel's First Family will make Earth-616 their permanent home after Secret Wars - The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place in an alternate reality, remember - with mutants similarly calling it home after previously being confined to Earth-10005.
The Midnight Sons movie is reportedly happening with Mephisto and Lilith as the main villains, while Nova will indeed feature Annihilus. As for the X-Men movies, Mister Sinister is supposedly the big bad of those, something we've long suspected after Fox's efforts focused on Magneto.
Finally, it's said that the next big Avengers event movie will be Avengers vs. X-Men!
It's been widely theorised that the upcoming Doomsday and Secret Wars might pit Earth-616's Mightiest Heroes against Earth-10005 X-Men and, while that may still happen, it seems Marvel Studios is looking to save the concept for this future project (which arguably makes more sense once that new MCU team of mutants is properly established).
As always, we'd advise taking this with a pinch of salt for now but there's an awful lot to be excited about. Hopefully, Marvel Studios will stick to less is more in the Mutant Saga, doing all the characters mentioned above justice in the process.
"I think you will see that continues in our next few movies with some X-Men players that you might recognize," Feige teased last November. "Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men. Again, [it’s] one of those dreams come true. We finally have the X-Men back."
Let us know your thoughts on this news in the comments section.