Kevin Feige on Jonathan Majors’ Kang, Wants the X-Men in the MCU Sooner Rather Than Later

Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, participates in the Marvel Studios’ Live-Action presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on July 23, 2022

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 23: Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, participates in the Marvel Studios’ Live-Action presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on July 23, 2022. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

After the Marvel panel on Saturday, Brandon Davis from ComicBook.com had a chance to speak with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who was finally able to speak freely about the direction the MCU is heading towards in the next three years.

 

First, Feige addressed one of the big differences between Phase 4 and the previous three:

 

“As we were laying out, and even three years ago when laying out Phase 4, which we didn’t lay out all of, but most of, we realized that it’s very different than Phase 1, 2, and 3. There are more projects in less years, and therefore it didn’t seem right to culminate every ten months in an Avengers movie. And each of the films themselves have become quite big and are cross-over events in many ways. And after the creative experience we had on ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’, it felt like it was about capping a saga, saving a back-to-back Avengers films for the completion of a saga. And that’s really what we wanted to lay out today.”

 

The cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at San Diego Comic-Con

 

When asked if we should look forward to post-credits scenes that will set up both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars in the upcoming movies and Disney Plus series, Feige said:

 

“The truth is, all of the tags are never just about the future. There are tags that are eating shawarma, Captain America saying you know you gotta learn patience, sometimes, you know, you wait for something that’s not worth it. So they are always fun for us. We don’t want everything to feel the same. So some of the tags will connect and some of them won’t. Some of the films and shows will connect; some of them won’t. I think it’s just as important that we can have standalone introductory stories like ‘Ms. Marvel’, like ‘Moon Knight’, in addition to things that interconnect and build towards the larger story. A lot of what we’ve been doing has been building to this larger story, obviously with ‘The Kang Dynasty’ and the Multiverse Saga, and now I think people will, I hope, come along for the ride. Both where it’s you’re on the express train to the finale, also when it’s fun, as many of our Phase 1, 2 and 3 films were.”

 

Kevin Feige announced Avengers: The Kang Dynasty at San Diego Comic-Con

 

The same way the conclusion of the Infinity Saga rested upon Thanos’ shoulders, the Multiverse Saga will now depend on Jonathan Majors’ Kang. Feige could not be more excited about this, as he said:

 

“It comes down to the cast and with Jonathan Majors, who I think took over the Hall H stage, you know, in the three minutes he was up there. It’s amazing, and I said to him there’s nobody’s shoulders I’d rather be putting the Multiverse Saga on than his. It’s really impressive what Jonathan Majors is able to do and all the different incarnations, variants, if you will, of Kang that we will see him do. It’s really pretty cool.”

 

He then added that Majors will be a very different villain than Thanos was:

 

“What I love is that [Kang is] totally different from Thanos. He is completely different. It’s not just how about there’s a bigger purple guy with a helmet, that’s not what Kang is. Kang is a very different type of villain and the fact that he is many, many different characters is what’s most exciting and most differentiates him.”

 

Kevin Feige announced that Phases 4-6 will be called The Multiverse Saga

 

Finally, to cap it off, Davis asked Kevin Feige if we’ll have to wait until Phase 10 for the introduction of the X-Men, which could even be titled Phase X. Feige, shocked, responded:

 

“You wanna wait until Phase 10 for the X-Men? Alright, that’s longer than I wanna wait, but…”

 

We are not sure yet when the X-Men are coming, but Phase 6 has plenty of empty room right now for a mutant-related project. A throwaway line from a Deadline article last week mentioned that Marvel Studios is already in development of a tentatively titled The Mutants project. Mutants are expected to be slowly introduced now, with Kamala Khan being the first, as revealed at the end of Ms. Marvel, which already makes the introduction of Professor Xavier and Magneto something we can expect before the end of Avengers: Secret Wars.

 

If you missed Saturday’s big announcements, make sure to check out all the information related to Phase 5 and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe here. The next project in line will be She-Hulk, out on Disney Plus on August 17, and right after that, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will debut in theaters on November 11. That will conclude Phase 4 of the MCU.