Introducing the Fantastic Four and X-Men into the MCU

Finally made my first post to Reddit, some super comic nerdery in the MCUTheories sub.

Fantastic Four and X-Men won't be retconned into the MCU. Their time will come for us in five to fifteen years. Keep this in mind: Disney/Marvel want to keep the financial success of the MCU going for as long as possible, so it's in their interest to spread out the big tent pole IPs as long as possible. We just had ~12yrs of Avengers. So we'll get about 10 years of FF and Doom and co. (~2023-2033), and then a good 10 to 15 years of X-Men (2028 and beyond). I can't wait.

Now that they can carefully plan the X-Men/FF introductions, they'll be super clever and assured about it. We'll get all kinds of fun fan baiting and winks and nods. Long before we get any of their movies or shows, we'll meet Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Storm, Reed Richards, Victor von Doom. In the GotG 3 or Thor: LAT end credits, we'll see from a ship window the tiny figure of Silver Surfer zooming through space.

A lot of speculation about the FF seems right. We'll meet Reed Richards as a genius scientist/inventor associate of Fury or Pym long before he becomes Mr. Fantastic. Victor von Doom maybe introduced at the same time. My feeling is that Ant-Man, as a standalone character, has been spread somewhat thin on storylines, which makes AM3 a perfect vehicle for a slight-of-hand first FF film. At least, that's when we'll see the FF experience their accident and gain their powers. It's when we'll see Doom become disfigured and aggrieved at . . . something. By the time Black Panther 2 comes around, Doom will be good and ready to become the great villain we know and love. Wakanda versus Latveria. After that, it really does seem like a good bet Doom will be the first villain to have his own movie (and it'll be a version of the Triumph and Torment story, featuring Doctor Strange and Mephisto).

Galactus seems like a perfect guess for the next Big Bad. Would pull together so well the FF, Doom, Eternals, GoTG, and Captain Marvel. Young Avengers, too. All our heroes and villains on earth needing to work together to save the planet. That's good drama.

I think the X-Men will be the most fun for Marvel to roll out. I'm guessing we'll see the introductions of Xavier, Juggernaut, Wolverine, Storm, and Rogue in the films/shows that have already been announced (2021-2024). Then, around 2026 Marvel will premier an X-Men Disney+ show featuring the original X-men, with Juggernaut as the villain. It'll be a teen drama type series, like Riverdale but with the comedic sensibility of the Spider-Man MCU films. No Magneto, and no saving the world, but instead a relatively low-stakes series of battles with small villains, mainly teens not yet strong in their powers. Charles Xavier vs his brother Cain will be the strongest through-line of each episode. A tv show, instead of a film, gives Marvel a much longer run time to explain mutants and set up their whole world. Plus, as teens, they won't be ready yet to help take on Galactus. We'll be ok with them staying in their Westchester mansion during that whole thing.

But then, around 2032, we get the X-Men movie, in which our teen X-men are now a few years older and stronger, and Xavier has roped in Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Nightcrawler, etc. into a much bigger team, fighting a much bigger villain. Magneto, probably. And probably another B villain or two we've met in the intervening years between now and then. Because we've already been introduced to the whole mutant lore, the film can get right into it, and expand upon the universe right away. It'll be so much fun.

Since we'll be in a post-Galactus MCU, the FF and other heroes will be dropping off and retiring. The stage will be set for the X-Men to take over the MCU. Most other heroes will have had their time, and the x-men universe can get crazy big and expansive.

My timeline guesses are probably wrong by a few years, but this gives us about another 2 decades of films and shows.