Kevin Feige On The Timeline To Develop Marvel Fox Properties At Disney

There are a lot of moving parts and potential hazards with the huge Disney-Fox deal expected to close at the end of January, but the one thing most people seem to care most about is seeing Fox's Marvel characters interacting with the Disney's Marvel characters. There's still no official word on when we might see one of these highly-anticipated crossovers, but we now know when the planning is set to begin. According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, development on bringing the Fox characters into the MCU will likely start in early 2019.

For years, complicated contracts and rights issues have kept the Marvel Fox properties – The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Deadpool and more – from appearing alongside the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's all about to change, though, thanks to Disney acquiring Fox's film titles in a massive deal that will probably change the face of film as we know it. Ever since word of the deal began spreading, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has been quizzed as to when we might see the Fox characters start showing up in the MCU. Feige has been understandably vague, primarily because all the details weren't ironed out yet.

But in a new interview with Variety's Playback Podcast, Feige finally shed some light on the future of the MCU. Feige says that he doesn't have a green light yet to develop films for the newly acquired Fox characters, but he expects to have that very soon:

"We've been told it's looking very, very good and could happen in the first six months of next year," Feige says. "The notion of the characters coming back is great. It's nice when a company that created all these characters can have access to all those characters. It's unusual not to. But in terms of actually thinking about it and actually planning things, we haven't started that yet."

This timetable makes sense. The Disney/Fox deal isn't even finalized yet, but it's expected to close next month. When that happens, Feige and company will likely get to work plotting things out. I suppose the big question here is: will the MCU use the same actors and storylines already established in the Fox films, or are they going to start completely fresh? I imagine certain contracts will keep certain actors in place, but the ball is really in Marvel Studio's court here. While all the specifics aren't available yet, it seems like Feige and his team are free to take the Fox Marvel properties into any direction they want.