Last December’s announcement about the Walt Disney Company’s purchase of 21st Century Fox touched off a flurry of discussion about whether X-Men: Dark Phoenix might be the final Fox-produced Marvel Comics-based movie. Then, as Fox continued to okay new projects, we decided that we might be mistaken, but a new report seems to indicate that we were right all along.
Comic Genre recently reported that Dark Phoenix will indeed be the last proper Fox/Marvel movie, presumably also the last in that continuity. The outlet added that the studio already thanked the crew for their efforts and informed them that their services won’t be needed when everything moves over to Disney.
The website suggested that integrating Fox-owned characters such as the X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a done deal, and Kevin Feige was already Hoovering [them] up. He apparently plans to introduce them in the MCU’s Phase Four, but it's not clear how they’ll fit in or who will play them.
The report makes sense, but questions remain. For example, if Dark Phoenix is the final Marvel/Fox movie, what will happen with The New Mutants? After a couple of revisions, the Josh Boone flick is scheduled for an August 2, 2019 (Dark Phoenix is arriving on February 14, 2019) release. Reports have indicated that the project may be undergoing extensive reshoots, but there’s been no hint that the studio might be dumping it altogether.
It might make more sense if, by using the term last proper Fox Marvel movie, Comic Genre implied that Dark Phoenix was going to be the final mainstream X-Men installment from the studio. But if that’s the case, it remains to be seen whether Drew Goddard's X-Force will also survive the merger. Deadpool 2 is set to introduce the team, and Disney CEO Bob Iger has maintained that they don't want to put the brakes on the Merc.
We should note that the Russo Brothers recently teased a potential Secret Wars adaptation as a means of integrating Fox’s Marvel properties into the MCU. If that happens, Marvel Studios could easily add the characters into the mix without abandoning the current incarnations.
