Avengers: Endgame co-writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely indicated in an interview with the New York Times that the X-Men franchise could indeed get a reboot after Dark Phoenix.
Disney officially acquired 21st Century Fox in March, including X-Men and Fantastic Four assets. When asked if Disney could have used any characters from either franchise in Endgame, McFeely replied, “Legally, not allowed to.”
Markus continued, “I guess [the acquisition’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.’” (New Mutants is supposed to release this year but it's looking unsure.)
McFeely and Markus also discussed the idea of including the stars of Netflix’s Marvel TV shows in Infinity War and/or Endgame, heroes like Daredevil and Jessica Jones. McFeely discussed whether moviegoers would even care about seeing these characters in the film: “Are we really going to assume they have bought a subscription to Netflix and watched those shows enough so that when they see them, they’re going to go ‘yay'?"
Markus touched on how it could “[screw] up the timelines.” He added that the only character who could come from TV to the movies is James D’Arcy’s character Edwin Jarvis from Agent Carter.
The co-writers considered narrative similarities between Endgame and Game of Thrones, which also had its characters readying themselves for an insane battle in its latest episode.
Markus said, “I remember Game of Thrones being a reference for the first movie. How far apart can you keep these strands, and for how long, and still feel like you’re telling a single narrative? Game of Thrones has people who are just meeting now! As much as people think the culture’s going down the drain, there seems to be an elevating of people’s estimating of the kind of narrative that will succeed in popular culture.”
Avengers: Endgame's opening weekend crushed box office records, grossing an incredible $350 million in North America and $1.2 billion worldwide.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set for release on June 7.
