Exclusive: Kevin Feige Wants An X-Men Series, But Disney Wants A Movie
Disney now owns the X-Men characters and so Marvel gets to move forward with bringing them into their cinematic universe. Kevin Feige wants to see this happen via a show.
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Kevin Feige is considered to be the architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His cinematic playground is owned by Disney. Sometimes, the two are bound to disagree on how things should be. Giant Freakin Robot has just learned of their latest disagreement from one of our trusted and proven inside sources. Disney now owns the X-Men characters and so Marvel gets to move forward with bringing them into their cinematic universe. Kevin Feige wants to see this happen via a show. That way, they can give more time to develop each character. Our source specifically said that Kevin Feige is afraid that an X-Men movie will suffer a similar fate to Eternals, which has been criticized for not doing enough to develop its large cast. Disney isn’t interested in an X-Men show for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They want to see an X-Men movie.
This sounds like a disagreement that may take a while to resolve. Hopefully, since Kevin Feige and Disney have worked together for a while, they’ll find their way through it quickly. It would be a shame if the standoff delayed the X-Men’s introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe any longer than it has to. It sounds like Disney+ has now been established as a strong part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige has shown that he can tie the major movie releases to the Disney+ series quite well. It makes sense that he would see this as the strongest way to tell the stories of the X-Men as a team.
Disney paid quite a lot of money when they acquired Fox, so it also makes sense that they may see a feature film as the strongest way to introduce their new X-Men characters and potentially earn the most money back. It’s currently unknown how much money is made on popular series that stream on Disney+. While shows like WandaVision have seemed successful, it would be hard to believe they earn as much as a Marvel movie, which can first release in theaters and then bring in a streaming crowd later on. It would also make sense that they have a larger potential to sell merchandise when they have characters introduced in movies.
Introducing the X-Men is going to be extremely interesting. For one thing, it has yet to be announced whether the characters will be recast or if Fox’s X-Men actors will be established as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether they use new actors or not, there may be an element of confusion for the casual moviegoer. This is an important consideration. Avid fans who watch every movie may be able to tell you the background of every character, but Marvel has a huge audience. When Kevin Feige makes decisions for his universe, he has to think about the part of the audience that isn’t clear on whether Superman (or other DC characters) will show up.
The X-Men movies at Fox got off to a strong start. Then, even fairly attentive fans got pretty confused as to what was happening in their timeline. While Fox made feature films for the X-Men that were successful, Kevin Feige has to find a way to introduce this cast of characters in a way that will make sense to a global audience, and the overall story of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s easy to see how approaching that on a series may be a better storytelling approach.
