Real Reason X-Men and Fantastic Four Weren’t in Avengers: Endgame Revealed

Marvel fans hoping that Avengers: Endgame would introduce the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe may have been disappointed by the film. There’s not a mutant or a member of Marvel’s first family to be found. Then again, perhaps they shouldn’t have gotten there hopes up to begin with. Speaking to the New York Times, Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely explain that adding the X-Men and the Fantastic Four was never really an option because — as many who have been following and reporting the story have pointed out on several occasions — Disney did not legally regain the film rights to those characters until months after filming on Endgame was complete and just weeks before it opened in theaters.

“Legally, not allowed to,” McFeely says. Markus adds, “I guess it’s done now but it wasn’t done then. They still have an X-Men movie [Dark Phoenix, due in June]. You can’t reboot them before they’re done. ‘Sorry to completely screw you.’”

So yes, expecting Marvel Studios to introduce the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the ongoing X-Men film series had a chance to wrap up was always an unreasonable expectation.

Dark Phoenix is expected to be the final installment of the current version of the X-Men movies. It is inspired by “The Dark Phoenix Saga.”

In Dark Phoenix, “The X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe when one of their own, Jean Grey, starts to spiral out of control. During a rescue mission in outer space, Jean is nearly killed when she’s hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. The X-Men must now band together to save her soul and battle aliens that want to use Grey’s new abilities to rule the galaxy.”

Dark Phoenix is written and directed by Simon Kinberg and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Jessica Chastain.

In an interview, Turner acknowledged the pressure to get this version of “The Dark Phoenix Saga” right. “Yes a lot of pressure,” she said. “I knew Simon [Kinberg, writer and director] was taking me out to lunch and he sits me down and tells me it’s Dark Phoenix and I’m like ‘f*****k.” I know it’s one of the most loved stories of the X-Men universe and for Simon to trust me enough with this responsibility is a big honor. And I want to do the fans of the original story justice, and of course, there’s a lot of pressure especially having been done before. Simon would tell you that it was a B-plot of the movie and he felt it had to be the main plot of the movie.”

Are you excited about Dark Phoenix? Do you wish the X-Men had appeared in Avengers: Endgame? Let us know in the comments. Dark Phoenix opens in theaters on June 7th.

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