Does Marvel's 5-Year Plan Include The X-Men? Here's What Kevin Feige Says

Does Marvel's 5-Year Plan Include The X-Men? Here's What Kevin Feige Says

One of the biggest things to come from the merger of Fox and Disney is that Marvel Studios now has the film rights to the X-Men. With the confirmation that the upcoming Dark Phoenix will be the final chapter of the existing X-Men universe, fans are looking forward to what appears to be the inevitable inclusion of the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, as things currently stand in the MCU, we may not be seeing the X-Men anytime soon. According to Marvel chief Kevin Feige, the current plan for the next five years of Marvel movies doesn't include the mutants. According to Feige...

It’ll be a while. It’s all just beginning and the five-year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of that was set. So really it’s much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back. But it will be a very long time.

Kevin Feige tells i09 that Marvel had been working on plans for the next phase of the MCU long before the deal with Fox was made, and thus, those plans didn't include a place for the X-Men. Feige says that those plans haven't been significantly impacted by this addition, so it likely won't be until after the current plan is finished that new characters, like the X-Men, will be added.

On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense. While we don't have a lot of visibility to what Marvel has planned for its next phase, we can assume a lot of work has been done behind the scenes. A lot of that work would go out the window and need to be started over, all with a much shorter turn around time, if the X-Men were made an immediate concern.

While Marvel has yet to confirm anything officially after Spider-Man: Far From Home comes out this July, we do think we know what's coming. Movies about Black Widow, and The Eternals have been rumored. Sequels for Doctor Strange and Black Panther are expected, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is back on the schedule, though it will now be coming out later than previously scheduled.

And there's really no need to bring in the X-Men too soon. There are plenty of other characters that can be focused on in future films and the longer the X-Men are left alone, the easier it will be to bring them back in a new, rebooted, form.

At the same time, as i09 points out, Marvel pivoted pretty quickly once the studio made a deal with Sony to get Spider-Man into the MCU, so it wouldn't be the first time plans had changed because new opportunities had presented themselves. There's always the possibility that, even if there are no specific plans to bring in the X-Men right now, those plans could always change.

The Black Widow Movie Has Added Stranger Things’ David Harbour

The Black Widow Movie Has Added Stranger Things’ David Harbour

To say that the past couple years have been good for David Harbour’s career would be an understatement. Along with being one of the lead actors in the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, Harbour also succeeded Ron Perlman as the next cinematic Hellboy, and we’ll see how he does as Big Red come next week. But just because Harbour is portraying a Dark Horse Comics character doesn’t mean he can’t jump to an adaptation from another comic book company, as word has come in that he’s been cast in the Black Widow movie.

With Black Widow reportedly gearing up to roll cameras in London this June, the Marvel movie is slowly assembling its cast. Naturally Scarlett Johansson will be reprising Natasha Romanoff, the KGB agent-turned-S.H.I.E.L.D. operative-turned-Avenger, and last month it was reported that Fighting with my Family star Florence Pugh was in talks to join the cast. Now THR has dropped the news that David Harbour will be appearing in the movie as well, although no details about his character were provided.

It’s becoming increasingly common for actors to lend their talents to more than one comic book movie franchise, like how Josh Brolin played both Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Cable in Deadpool 2. David Harbour already has the spotlight in Hellboy, which could lead to sequels or even a full-blown cinematic universe depending on how its received, but now he can also leave his mark on the MCU as well in Black Widow’s standalone adventure. Plus, the actor has also already lent his talents to the DC universe, as he played Dexter Tolliver in Suicide Squad. Harbour’s other notable credits include Quantum of Solace, Revolutionary Road, The Green Hornet, The Equalizer, The Newsroom and State of Affairs.

While no official plot details for Black Widow have been revealed yet, rumor has it that the movie will be a prequel set before Iron Man 2. That said, there are conflicting claims on the specific time period, with one report saying it will be set only about half a decade or so before Natasha Romanoff met Tony Stark and another saying it will occur during the turn of the millennium and involve the Y2K bug. It’s also possible that rather than explore Natasha’s time working for the KGB or her early years at S.H.I.E.L.D., Black Widow will actually take place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. For now, Marvel is keeping us in the dark, although depending on what happens to Natasha in Endgame, that could foreshadow what’s in store for her in her solo feature. Either way, whether it’s a younger version of her or her current day self, she’ll be crossing paths with David Harbor’s character, be he friend or foe.

Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow doesn’t have an assigned release date yet, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for that information, more casting and other updates on its development. In the meantime, don’t forget to look through our Marvel movies guide to learn what else the MCU has coming up.

How John Wick 3 Set Up A Possible Spinoff

How John Wick 3 Set Up A Possible Spinoff

Very minor John Wick 3 spoilers ahead. Don't shoot the messenger.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum just had a -- wait for it -- killer opening weekend at the box office. That's important for world-building reasons. It not only makes another sequel more likely, it bodes well for The Continental TV series that's still in development at Starz and the spinoff movie that was discussed two years ago.

Do you remember that spinoff movie?

Back in 2017, it was announced that the John Wick franchise might be getting a spinoff movie called Ballerina. The script was being written by Shay Hatten, who is also credited as one of the writers of Parabellum. The story was said to follow a young woman raised as an assassin who must hunt down the other assassins that murdered her family. It was described, at the time, as being akin to La Femme Nikita, but with a "more pulpy, hyper-stylized bent a la Quentin Tarantino or Matthew Vaughn."

That was then. Fast-forward to 2019 and John Wick 3 just introduced Anjelica Huston as The Director, who also runs an academy that turns ballerinas into assassins. Putting two and two together, THR asked director Chad Stahelski if it was safe to say her introduction set up the Ballerina spinoff. Here's Stahelski's reply:

I think if you read Shay’s script and you look into the characters in that, you’d find your answer.

Not having seen Shay Hatten's script, it still seems pretty safe to say the answer is "yes." A lot can happen in two years to change a story, but the franchise-best box office success of John Wick 3 -- not to mention approval from both critics and fans -- suggests this spinoff has a great chance of moving forward. There are plenty of questions on how it would play out, including whether Anjelica Huston would be a main star and if Keanu Reeves would cameo at all. But we can add it to the list of spinoff/sequels from here.

(For the record, that long-gestating TV spinoff set at the L.A. Continental hotel is meant to have at least a Keanu Reeves cameo, and possibly a voice-over from Winston actor Ian McShane.)

John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski also talked to THR about the third chapter sharing more background on Jonathan's own origin story. In a section of his answer, he also touched on things that might be relevant to the Ballerina spinoff:

... As far as backstory goes, everything you need to know about John is in Parabellum. We hid it very well and hopefully, you’ll watch this movie three or four times. You may not care, and if you do care, when you watch The Director’s scenes and you see the girls, and you put two and two together with the tattoos and the crucifixes, the kind of martial arts he does, who he talks to, what languages he speaks, you can piece together a fairly comprehensive background on where John came from and what his upbringing was like. I give the audience a lot of credit; hopefully, they can piece it together and they like piecing it together. It’s like a book; that’s why we numbered the movies as chapters...

Speaking of chapters, John Wick: Chapter 3 ended on a note that has fans curious about John Wick: Chapter 4. If you want spoilers, check out our breakdown of the Parabellum ending and start imagining what might be next in Keanu Reeves' movie, plus the movie and TV spinoffs. Let's just hope this doesn't turn into -- wait for it again -- overkill.

Fox Almost Made A Marvel Crossover Movie Starring The X-Men, Fantastic Four And More

Fox Almost Made A Marvel Crossover Movie Starring The X-Men, Fantastic Four And More

The superhero movie landscape looks a lot different than it did at the beginning of the decade. For one thing, back then, the film rights to properties like X-Men and the Fantastic Four still belonged to 20th Century Fox, a studio a long ways away from being owned by a certain Mouse House. As such, the chances of seeing these Marvel characters share screen time with those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t possible.

However, evidently at one point Fox was considering making its own Avengers-level crossover superhero movie. During his recent appearance on Fatman Beyond, screenwriter Zack Stentz, who co-wrote both X-Men: First Class and Thor, was asked which of his movies that he’s written that will never come out is his favorite, Stentz answered:

My ex-partner and I, when we were working at Fox and working on X-Men: First Class, we did a secret movie for them that, I can't tell you what the plot was, but I can tell you that it used all of the characters, all of the Marvel characters that Fox had at the time in 2011. It used the X-Men. It used the Fantastic Four. It used Daredevil. It used Deadpool. Daredevil was still at Fox at the time. And it was a really cool freakin’ script. We almost had Paul Greengrass directing it, which would've been so cool, but he had another project to do instead. It didn't end up going, but it was a script I was really proud of and it would've been really good.

Man, this takes me back. While the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool were obviously Fox-only Marvel characters up until the Disney transaction went through, it’s easy to forget that Daredevil was also part of that group for a long time. The Man Without Fear only starred in one movie, and while Fox tried to get a reboot off the ground by 2012, that fell through and the rights went back to Marvel, paving the way for the Daredevil Netflix series.

Having Paul Greengrass direct this Fox crossover movie also would have been a cool choice, as the man had proved his action mettle with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Going off the loose time frame Zack Stentz laid out, I suspect Greengrass turned down this opportunity in favor of directing Captain Phillips, which went on to be nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, among other accolades.

Had Fox moved forward with this movie featuring the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool and X-Men, this might have placed the Fox Marvel franchise on a higher pedestal. Granted, the X-Men film series has been chugging along steadily for nearly two decades, which includes the surprise success of Deadpool, but along with Daredevil barely getting a chance to shine, the Fantastic Four movies didn’t fare particularly well, with the 2015 reboot ending up a critical and commercial bomb.

Perhaps new life could have been breathed into all these characters had they been able to join forces in such an epic tale, although I worry introducing Deadpool here might have resulted in the character not being adapted as well as he was in 2016. It’s also a good bet that this movie would have taken the X-Men down a much different path than they are now.

Fast-forwarding to now, all of these properties now rest under Marvel Studios, and while the plan is to keep Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool around, it’s expected that the Fantastic Four and X-Men will are rebooted down the line. Daredevil was cancelled over a month after Season 3 premiered, and it remains to be seen if we’ll ever see Charlie Cox’s version of Matt Murdock again or if the character will be rebooted again to better fit within MCU continuity.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates concerning Marvel’s plans for any of the above characters on the big or small screens. Those of you who are curious about what the MCU has lined up next can look through our comprehensive guide.

Why Captain Marvel Got A New Look For Avengers: Endgame

Why Captain Marvel Got A New Look For Avengers: Endgame

Brie Larson's Captain Marvel doesn't have a massive part to play in Avengers: Endgame, but the small role is an important one that required a lot of work when it comes to post-production digital effects.

However, it turns out it wasn't simply Carol Danvers' powers that required a lot of effects, but her costume as well. While Brie Larson wore a physical superhero suit on the set of Avengers: Endgame, it was decided later the suit needed to be changed up, and so a completely digital costume was drawn over Captain Marvel in post-production. According to visual effects supervisor Matt Aitken...

She was filmed with her physical costume with a great costume from the costume department. But after her sequences were filmed, it was decided by the filmmakers that her costume needed to be more different from the costume that she was wearing in the 25 years ago, whatever the era of the Captain Marvel movie. So we ended up replacing her costume with a CG suit for all her shots.

Brie Larson actually filmed Avengers: Endgame prior to making the Captain Marvel movie. It seems that one side effect of this was that only one suit was produced for the character. At the time, this probably made sense, but eventually it was decided that it Carol Danvers was going to change other things about her appearance in the 25 years of time that pass between the two films chronologically, she'd probably change her costume at some point as well.

Since the scenes had already been filmed, it just meant changing the costume in post-production as Matt Aitken told Comicbook.com. CGI costumes are nothing new, Iron Man's entire suit is a digital effect after all.

Captain Marvel is one of the more interesting characters in the MCU right now simply by virtue of how new she is. Introduced in between the two recent Avengers film, and not having a massive role in the finale, we're still not sure quite where the character stands. The feeling is that Carol Danvers will be playing a major role in the future of the MCU, but we didn't really get that idea from Avengers: Endgame. She's clearly powerful, but that's about all we can say with certainty.

The fact that the character was introduced so recently, and then used so quickly, so much so that they clearly didn't consider how the chronology would impact the character's look, shows how Captain Marvel may still be something of an unknown quantity to Marvel Studios as well.

Or at the very least, she was at the time. While we don't know what the future holds for the MCU characters, Marvel certainly does. Bob Iger has said that we'll learn more about what Marvel has planned for the future this summer, and with both SDCC and D23 set to happen in the coming months, we can guess one or both of those events will be our massive unveiling.

Bond 25 Reportedly Hired An 'Intimacy Coordinator' For Sex Scenes

Bond 25 Reportedly Hired An 'Intimacy Coordinator' For Sex Scenes

Cool cars, fancy gadgets, explicitly made alcoholic beverages and steamy sex scenes are all hallmarks of the James Bond film series, and I expect they will all be present for next year’s Bond 25. It’s that latter point, though, that may be undergoing some changes behind-the-scenes for Cary Joji Fukunaga’s movie if a new rumor is to be believed. That’s because Bond 25 has reportedly hired an ‘Intimacy Coordinator’ for its sex scenes.

According to The Sun, Bond 25 will be employing an Intimacy Coach to make the actors feel comfortable during sex scenes, a first for the franchise. The story went on to say that Bond producer Barbara Broccoli and the team behind the film wanted to bring the franchise up to speed in the #MeToo era, and that the hiring of an Intimacy Coordinator is testament to that.

The Intimacy Coordinator would go through the script with the actors participating in the sex scenes, namely Daniel Craig and new Bond Girl Ana De Armas, to make sure that they feel comfortable and have whatever support they need on set. This story should be treated as rumor until we have official confirmation from Eon Productions, MGM, Barbara Broccoli or Cary Joji Fukunaga, but it is a move that would certainly make sense.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Intimacy Coordinators. as the title and job entered our lexicon last year. HBO, the premium cable network known for having sex scenes in its shows and movies, announced that any of its productions involving sexually intimate scenes would have an Intimacy Coordinator from then on.

The role of the Intimacy Coordinator was described as someone who mediates between the actors, directors, producers and crew regarding sex scenes. On The Deuce, Intimacy Coordinator Alicia Rodis reviewed the script and discussed and coordinated the scenes with the actors, as well as notified them of any last-minute script changes. The Intimacy Coordinator is also an advocate for the actors as these scenes are worked through.

If Bond 25 has employed an Intimacy Coordinator, that person would presumably fulfill a similar function to make everyone feel comfortable (although probably still awkward) and safe during sex scenes.

James Bond is one of fiction’s most notorious womanizers and although he isn’t known for treating women well, that should not hold true of the Bond films. Both the women and the men acting in sex scenes should feel comfortable, informed and prepared for what they have to do without being pressured into anything else.

It would be a progressive move for Bond 25 and one that is frankly a no-brainer. The production spends a little extra money to hire an Intimacy Coordinator, the actors get support to feel comfortable during sex scenes and the production still gets the scenes it needs, as well as some positive PR for taking such a step. For that latter reason, if this rumor is true, I imagine we will hear some sort of confirmation before the film comes out.

Bond 25 recently had to suspend production after Daniel Craig suffered an injury, but it is fortunately not expected to be for too long so hopefully the film will still hit its release date.

Bond 25 opens in theaters on April 8, 2020. For movies arriving a little sooner, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.

What If Steve Or Bucky Had To Sacrifice For The Soul Stone In Endgame? Here's Sebastian Stan's Take

What If Steve Or Bucky Had To Sacrifice For The Soul Stone In Endgame? Here's Sebastian Stan's Take

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame.

Captain America and Bucky Barnes are a favorite duo in the MCU, with their friendship being vital for each character's arcs. Seeing as how their friendship is so strong, some fans have been wondering what would happen if Steve and Bucky were the ones to find the Soul Stone. The specific rules of the stone require a sacrifice and, according to Sebastian Stan, it's one both characters would be willing to make.

In the quest for the Infinity Stones, no stone costs as much as the Soul Stone. Found on the planet Vormir, the stone requires an everlasting exchange from the one looking to claim it. As the Red Skull says, it's a soul for a soul. In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos killed his daughter Gamora, and in Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow makes the sacrifice to save Hawkeye.

Basically, shit goes down when characters go to Vormir, so how would the MCU's biggest bromance handle the cost of the Soul Stone? While in attendance at Italy’s Jus In Bello convention (via ComicBook.com), Sebastian Stan was asked which of the two characters would take the plunge off the cliff to spare the other. Stan sounded fascinated by the question and this was his answer:

Wow. [Steve] would probably be like, ‘I got this.’ And [Bucky] would have been like, ‘No, I should be doing this.' No, I think it would have been a fight, and I probably would have tried to — I should be the one, after everything, to take the leap, so to speak. But knowing him, he probably wouldn’t let me. But I don’t know, that’s a crazy question. Jesus. And then the Red Skull was there.

That sounds about right. Neither Steve or Bucky would be okay with the other killing themselves for the stone and they would definitely fight each other for that "right." It's exactly what happened with Clint and Natasha in Endgame. In fact, you could probably take almost any two heroes in the MCU, put them on Vormir, and they would fight each other to make the sacrifice.

Plus, Sebastian Stan brings up the very good point that Red Skull adds an interesting wrinkle. How would Cap and Bucky react to seeing their arch-nemesis alive as a Ring Wraith on Vormir? Cap definitely had to meet Red Skull to return the Soul Stone at the end of Endgame, so hopefully one day we get to see how that interaction plays out.

Avengers: Endgame is still out there eating up records and you can watch it as much as you like. For everything the summer has to offer for movie fans, be sure to stay up to date with our 2019 movie release guide. For all other movie news, keep it right here at CinemaBlend.