Marvel's Kevin Feige Teases the MCU's "Mutant Era"

"We have characters from the X-Men world, the mutants [that] we haven't had access to before," the Deadpool & Wolverine producer says.

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Infinity Saga. The Multiverse Saga. The Mutant Saga? Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has been teasing the X-Men since San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, when Marvel's mutants and other formerly Fox-owned properties like the Fantastic Four were folded into the Marvel Cinematic Universe following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Ever since ushering in the Multiverse Saga — spanning the MCU Phase 4, the ongoing Phase 5, and the upcoming Phase 6 — Marvel has slowly integrated mutants into its films and television shows, including Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and The Marvels. 

But it's Deadpool & Wolverine, in theaters July 26th, that will begin a new era for the now 34-movie MCU. Not only is the Phase 5 installment the studio's first R rating (with the R-rated Blade reboot on the way), but it will usher in what Feige refers to as the "Mutant era." 

"The 'after' [Deadpool & Wolverine] is clearly — now that we have characters from the X-Men world, the mutants — we haven't had access to before," Feige said during a press conference (via The Playlist). "So, this is the beginning of that, and every [movie] post-Deadpool & Wolverine will be the Mutant era coming into the MCU."

Marvel Studios has hired The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes writer Michael Lesslie to pen the X-Men reboot that the studio has yet to formally announce (although that could change at Marvel Studios' Hall H panel at SDCC 2024 this week). When the live-action X-Men finally make their MCU debut — which could potentially happen in a rumored Avengers vs. X-Men movie  — the lineup will include characters from across the X-verse.

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"It's that phrase we use often at Marvel, which is: 'It's an embarrassment of riches,'" Feige told io9. "And there are a lot of great X-Men characters in the Deadpool & Wolverine film. There are a lot of great X-Men characters in all of the Fox versions of the X-Men films. And there are a lot of great X-Men characters that have never gone on the big screen."

'So I think as we always try to do, as we did when we made the arrangement with Sony for Spider-Man, you'll probably see a mix of characters you've seen before and characters you've never seen before," Feige continued. Along with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, that mix of X-characters could include Patrick Stewart's Professor Charles Xavier (who returned in 2022's Doctor Strange 2) and Kelsey Grammer's Beast (who appeared in 2023's The Marvels).

Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine is in theaters July 26th. 

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