There has been chatter about how the Inhumans movie that was announced is essentially canceled. Some of this has been attributed to the split between Marvel TV and Marvel Studios and the fact that Kevin Feige (head of the MCU) did not like the person who is in charge of Marvel TV (his former boss before Marvel Studios was made independent). But here’s my theory:
It’s an open secret that the MCU has been using Inhumans as a stand in for Mutants because they can’t use Mutants as Fox owns that IP. I think that either
Negotiations are underway with Fox to bring the X-Men home the way Spider-Man was so Marvel studios wants to wait to see if they can get Oreos instead of Hydrox.
or
They have not yet negotiated but still want to keep things open because if the Spider-Man deal goes well for Sony they know Fox will at least talk.
To be honest, the stated reason is not mutually exclusive and could indeed be part of the reason but I think I might be right and we will be hearing sometime in the next 6 months to a year that there will be an MCU X-Men movie.
Wait, what’s this split between the cinematic universe and Marvel TV? I thought that Agents of Shield and Agent Carter were pretty well-integrated with the MCU.
There’s some info in this article but basically earlier this year Marvel Studios (that makes the movies) became independent and the department that it used to be under still runs the TV shows. They are all still in the same universe but the people that make them don’t work as close together as they used to.
I’m okay with keeping them separate, in part because I never really understood how in the comics, people were afraid of mutants but surprisingly accepting of super powered characters like The Avengers.
There was a discussion about this in one of the Agents of SHIELD threads (I think the first episode of the new season). Some will say that the two work well together; I’m in the camp that says the TV shows clearly reference the movies (to keep people watching) whereas it’s obvious the movies are ignoring the TV shows. There’s not a single reference in the movies to anything that’s happened in the TV shows, and Whedon has been quite clear that he doesn’t like some of the moves that Agents of SHIELD pulled (such as resurrecting Coulson).
You might find this discussion on an X-Men comic discussion board enlightening. I originally thought the same, and I still say that “super powers” alone can’t be a reason. But there is another good reason, which is that many mutants publicly hold themselves out as being a separate species that is superior to and will replace humanity (which the Inhumans have also been doing). They turn themselves into a separate group, an identifiable people; whereas the Avengers are just a collection of people with nothing in common except having superpowers/special abilities.
That aside, I still think the X-Men work better on their own too. And the MCU is starting to get pretty crowded…
The only answer that ever made any sense to me was in the instantly retconned Grant Morrison run. Per Morrison, humanity will be in the minority (or completely replaced by mutants) in two generations.
I can see “extinction of homo sapiens in about 40 years” as a reason for people to be afraid of mutants.
Unfortunately, Marvel undid that pretty damned quickly.
They also have a pretty big movie universe, all in one semi-consistent timeline. As opposed to Spiderman, which has 5 movies in two separate series. The only way to integrate the X-men into the MCU would be a complete reboot. I don’t see that happening.
Rumor now has it that Marvel and Fox have worked a deal to get Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I can also see Marvel not wanting to do an Inhumans movie. I think they’ll work better on the small screen anyway. Maybe a limited series as was done with Agent Carter?
And in Age of Ultron, Nick Fury made the comment that the “new” helicarrier had been delivered by some old friends."
I think Hollywood (out of ideas apparently) should remake old movies. Like Gone with the Wind, Sound of Music, Alien 1, etc. The films they make these days seem to be “different for the sake of being different”, not “better” or on the par level of past films.
In terms of bad ideas, that ranks right up with, “Save time by bringing your toaster into the bathtub with you, so you can make breakfast while you bathe!”
I think the Inhumans movie is going to get canceled, but not because of any shenanigans with the X-Men or Fantastic Four. It’s basically the only movie in the Marvel schedule that isn’t load-bearing for the ongoing plotlines, so it’s the only slot they can repurpose to fill their inexplicable and indefensible lack:
Marvel needs a female-led superheroine movie.
Since the rumor is that Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) is going the tv route, I think Inhumans is inevitably going to get replaced by a Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) or Black Widow movie.
