As far as we know, Avengers: Infinity War will include every major character from the MCU as Earth's Mightiest Heroes face their biggest opponent yet - Thanos. With directors Anthony and Joe Russo recent remarks that the movie marks a significant change in the MCU, a new beginning of sorts, there's a chance that could mean something drastic. I mean, X-Men joining the battle kind of drastic.
It's not the first time the mutants have been mentioned in regards to a potential crossover, but with Phase Three of the MCU going out with a bang, rumors are swirling again on this very hot topic. But apparently there's no truth to any of it. "As far as we know, right now there isn't talk regarding the X-Men," Infinity War director Joe Russo tells ComicBook.com. "I don't know if behind-the-scenes there were conversations or if there are conversations happening but we certainly haven't heard of any."
For the X-Men to appear in the MCU it would require a similar deal to the one struck between Marvel Studios and Sony, that allowed for the webslinger to join the party. "Sony and Marvel had a relationship through Kevin [Feige] and Amy [Pascal] and through us and Amy," he explains. "That's really how Spider-Man came about. It requires a certain alchemy and a very special situation for studios to share properties."
Is it likely? It's hard to say, but no-one expected Spider-Man to join the MCU and that's happened. If it were to occur, there'd have to be a truly special agreement reached between Fox - which owns the screen rights to the X-Men - and Marvel Studios. And while X-Men Apocalypse wasn't the critical hit Fox was hoping for it still made $541 million worldwide, so there's still plenty of life in the franchise just yet.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Infinity War is due to arrive in UK cinemas on April 27, 2018 before opening in US theatres on May 4th, 2018.
Images: Marvel, Fox