While it was recently said that Kevin Feige was skipping out on doing interviews for Black Panther, thought due to Feige wanting to avoid talk of the impending purchase of Fox Studios by Disney, that looks not to be the case as Kevin Feige commented on the matter at the Black Panther press junket.
According to the Marvel Studios president, he wasn’t aware of the deal and learned about it like the rest of us.
“I read about it in the press like most people did,” Kevin Feige told Vulture.
It seems highly unlikely that Kevin Feige wouldn’t be made aware of the deal, especially considering the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Wolverine and Deadpool would be under his wing, but Feige insisted, “These are big deals and certainly above my pay grade.”
Vulture didn’t let it go and continued to press Feige who said currently they aren’t even discussing the X-Men or other Fox Studios properties in the MCU.
“The truth of the matter as I understand it is the deal has to be figured out,” Feige said. “There’s been no communication. We’re not thinking about it. We’re focusing on everything we’ve already announced. If and when the deal actually happens, we’ll start to think more about it. Until then, we have a lot to do.”
The article mentions how Spider-Man came together for Captain America: Civil War, so could Marvel be thinking of the possibilities with the X-Men? Feige wasn’t budging.
“It would be years away,” Feige cautioned. “We’ve announced everything through 2019, so none of those would be adjusted.”
The Fox and Disney deal has been said to be about 12-18 months away from going through, so that would put it some time next year. Marvel movies known to be in the works following the May 2019 release of The Avengers 4 (which interestingly enough is right around the Disney and Fox timeline) include Spider-Man: Homecoming 2 for July 2019 and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for 2020 (Black Widow is said to be in the works, but has yet to be officially announced).
Is the reason Marvel has been hesitant to announce new movies because of the events in The Avengers: Infinity War movies?
Or is the real reason because of how the Disney and Fox deal may turn out?
Another factor could be that Kevin Feige’s Marvel contract is reportedly up next year.