Nia DaCosta, director of upcoming The Marvels, has revealed that she originally pitched a crossover movie to Marvel Studios featuring characters from both the Fantastic Four and X-Men franchises. The Marvels is the upcoming sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, the MCU’s first film to center on a female protagonist. Brie Larson is set to reprise her role as Carol Danvers alongside Teyonah Parris, who made her MCU debut as Monica Rambeau in WandaVision earlier this year. The Marvels will see the two team up with young shape-shifting superhero and Captain Marvel superfan Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), whose own Marvel/Disney+ television series is expected to premiere in late 2021.
In 2019, Disney made a deal to acquire Fox’s movie and TV assets, giving the studio two major superhero properties to add to their arsenal: Fantastic Four and X-Men. Many speculated that the casting of Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff (aka Quicksilver) in WandaVision signaled the official induction of X-Men into the MCU, but it turned out to be a fun meta-casting joke. Despite the many theories about how and when they might appear, there are no official plans for either the Fantastic Four or the X-Men to debut in Phase 4 of the MCU just yet.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, DaCosta has revealed that her initial pitch to Marvel involved both of their newly acquired fan-favorite properties. Speaking to the publication about her sequel to the horror classic, Candyman, the director admitted to “nerding out” during her first meeting with Marvel producer Mary Livanos. She said she first suggested a “Galactus, Storm and Scott Summers team-up movie.” Read her full quote below:
“I just nerded out. I was like, here are the movies I think you should do! Galactus, Storm, and Scott Summers team-up movie! Blah blah blah! She just endured me going in super-deep. And she also gave me a lot of confidence that I would have the creative latitude to not just basically be a puppet on a string.”
It is interesting that DaCosta is still directing a team-up movie, but certainly not the one she originally pitched. The director is clearly keen to show her comic-book credentials by mentioning Galactus, an extremely powerful cosmic entity and iconic Fantastic Four antagonist from the comics. A Fantastic Four and X-Men crossover would be a bold and exciting way for Marvel to introduce both franchises into the MCU, but it’s much more likely that the studio will build hype through teasers and post-credits scenes before committing to a full reboot in earnest.
As the MCU begins to explore the multiverse, there will be plenty of opportunities for everyone from Reed Richards to Wolverine to make their MCU debut, if that is what the studio wants. Marvel’s upcoming Secret Wars film could be the studio’s most ambitious team-up film yet, and there’s a good chance DaCosta’s creative vision of a crossover will come to pass in the near future. For now, she has The Marvels, an ambitious team-up movie that will give Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan their cinematic debut.
Source: The Guardian
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