While there are still some international approvals pending, the acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets by the Walt Disney Company could close in early 2019, possibly by the end of January. With that deal comes the use of several characters that Fox owns the rights to, which Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says could be integrated soon.
Feige told Variety’s “Playback” podcast that he hasn’t yet been given approval to start on film projects featuring the X-Men, Fantastic Four, or Deadpool, but did comment on the future the characters, saying:
We’ve been told it’s looking very, very good and could happen in the first six months of next year. The notion of the characters coming back is great. It’s nice when a company that created all these characters can have access to all those characters. It’s unusual not to. But in terms actually thinking about it and actually planning things, we haven’t started that yet.
Feige adds that he hopes to replicate for global audiences the shared universe that comic book fans have been enjoying for decades.
