Kevin Feige Reveals Marvel Studios Is Planning Movies All The Way Up To 2042, With The X-Men At The Core

Kevin Feige has revealed that Marvel Studios was mapping out movies all the way up to 2042, a full decade beyond the 2032 plan he told everybody about last year, right when Fantastic Four came out. In an interview given in the days before San Diego Comic-Con, he also put the X-Men at the core of what comes next and used the words "the mutant saga" himself.

Feige did not hold back in that interview. He answered questions head on about the X-Men, about how far into the future Marvel's plans go, and about the future of Spider-Man, including Miles Morales and as many as five more Spider-Man films. Before I get to the 2042 plans, though, there are a few earlier confirmations from Feige that fit perfectly alongside it.

Feige confirms Avengers: Secret Wars will not be split into two parts

Feige has confirmed that Avengers: Secret Wars will not be split into two parts. It is simply Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. There will be no Secret Wars Part One and no Secret Wars Part Two.

Has Marvel Studios lied in the past? The Russos have, and Marvel has been coy. But usually when Kevin Feige says something this emphatic, it is true.

Secret Wars is where the reboot happens, not after it

Feige also readdressed the reboot. His message was that some things are going to change, but it will be, in his words again, "a singular universe." He said some things would be familiar, but a lot of things would not be. To me, that means there are a lot of changes coming with the reset in Avengers: Secret Wars.

He then reiterated that while Avengers: Endgame was an ending, Secret Wars is a beginning. That lines up with what I have argued through my analysis of everything we have learned over the last year and a half: instead of waiting until after Secret Wars, the reboot happens in Secret Wars. That is why we are getting Sadie Sink's Jean Grey alongside some new X-Men, and probably a lot of new characters as well, maybe some we have never seen on the big screen before.

The X-Men will sit at the core of a multistage mutant saga

Then Feige turned to the next saga, specifically the X-Men. He tied it back to attracting young people and connecting with a new generation of audiences, saying that is exactly what the next universe will be about, with the X-Men fundamentally at its core. In his words, acquiring the rights is not just about Wolverine, even though teaming him up with Deadpool was great. "But the X-Men are far more than just Wolverine, far more than the original team. Fundamentally, it's a universe, a multi-stage saga."

The interviewer had a friend who had told them not to let Kevin Feige off with a vague answer. Feige laughed that this was not a vague answer, and said he had not told anyone this before. "We were just in a Marvel Studios meeting room planning movies all the way up to 2042. Whether we can make it to 2042, who knows. Will it be those movies? Who knows." He explained that planning this way gives them guidance through the vast number of potential stories in the comics, especially with the X-Men, which he noted has already had 10 movies, some very good and some he thinks did not live up to expectations. He finished by asking how they plan the mutant saga in a very grand way.

So the huge takeaways are these. Marvel has loose plans through 2042, not just 2032. And just before that, Feige described a multistage saga built around a team that is far more than Wolverine or the original lineup. Put together, that suggests a new MCU, some reboots, some of the same cast, and new X-Men going through a multistage saga that apparently takes us through 2042. I shudder to think how old I will be when we hit that date. Regardless, for anyone worried about the MCU ending anytime soon, it obviously is not.

The phrase itself also caught my attention. The fandom basically named the next saga "the mutant saga." We have been calling it that ever since Marvel announced the Multiverse Saga's name. The fact that Feige used those words probably means at least this next saga is officially called that.

Feige says there are definite plans for a live action Miles Morales, while more Spider-Man movies have been discussed

The interviewer then asked Feige directly whether there would be a Spider-Man 5 in the Peter Parker series, and what the status of Miles Morales was, recalling that Feige had previously said a live action Miles project would have to wait until the Spider-Verse animated films had ended.

Feige pointed to the line in Spider-Man: No Way Home where Electro says, "Somewhere there's bound to be a black Spider-Man," and said audiences around the world were thrilled because they knew it might be a hint at Miles. He praised Sony's Spider-Verse films as very popular and excellent, then said: "But yes, we definitely have plans for a live-action Miles." He added that he thinks a live action Spider-Man movie has the destiny to add Miles sometime after the Spider-Verse series ends.

He went further. Feige said they have been thinking about and discussing more Spider-Man adventures regardless of the agreements and contracts, and that his production partner Amy Pascal, who is in charge of the Spider-Man IP at Sony, is already working on it. According to Feige, they have had in depth discussions about what the next two, three, four and five Spider-Man movies might be about. So not only is he aware that we want Miles in live action, there are plans for multiple Spider-Man movies after this.

Tom Holland's Peter Parker and the classic Avengers look set to stick around

We had already heard that Peter Parker coming back for a fourth film probably meant five and six, because it would be a whole other trilogy. But this means that as we venture into the new MCU, Tom Holland's Peter Parker is sticking around. I think the same goes for some of the classic Avengers characters. Chris Hemsworth will probably continue to play Thor, and Hugh Jackman might even stay Wolverine for a while. A lot of the classic characters we love from the Infinity Saga and the Multiverse Saga are not going anywhere.

Look, Marvel did not cast Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and the rest of the Fantastic Four for one movie just to recast the Fantastic Four somewhere down the road. Are there going to be characters who leave the MCU because they are killed off in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars? Absolutely. I bet that if we really tried to work out the odds, we could come pretty close to guessing who is most likely to go.

But for continuity's sake, and I think we all knew this even if we do not say it out loud enough, Feige clearly knows it too. It would be a tragedy for Disney to have spent all that money to buy Fox and get the X-Men rights back, finally introduce a new X-Men cast, and then have them alienated from all the classic characters, surrounded by a bunch of new recasts that do not hold the same weight because they were not part of the Infinity Saga or the Multiverse Saga. From this direct quote, it sounds like Marvel has a multistage plan for the mutants to take front and center over the next 15 or 16 years, and another plan to keep a lot of the continuity we love going at the same time, so the X-Men are not all alone.

Marvel Studios cannot repeat the mistakes it made after Avengers: Endgame

I have talked at length about the mistakes Marvel Studios made coming out of Endgame. It essentially removed Steve Rogers and Tony Stark from the equation, then failed to keep continuity with the new characters it was introducing, going one by one with characters who never showed up again after their initial introduction. Shang-Chi, the Eternals, Hercules, Clea, Scar; the list goes on. Did I even mention that Hulk has a kid? Hulk has had a kid this entire time.

Marvel Studios cannot do that again, not when it is introducing a brand new X-Men class. That is why I believe it decided Secret Wars is the reboot. That is where we will be introduced to a new Ghost Rider and new X-Men characters, and going forward they will be surrounded by classic characters we all know and remember, rather than a huge killing off. I would say the new Tony Stark and the new Steve Rogers, but very clearly we do not have those, which I would say is pretty clearly part of the problem.

The whole point is that Marvel Studios had an opportunity to learn from how it stumbled going from the Infinity Saga to the Multiverse Saga. Judging by these quotes, it seems like Marvel is going to have a much better time transitioning this time, using Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars to fix what it did not do before. It all makes so much sense now. Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios, thank you. At least from what you are saying, it seems like you get it, and as a fandom we really appreciate it. It does not mean we will see every film through 2042 laid out anytime soon, but it does mean there is a loose plan and that Marvel is working towards something grand.

How excited are you about an MCU slate that stretches all the way to 2042?