X

Marvel's Kevin Feige taking over X-Men movie franchise

Will Deadpool join the Avengers? Disney CEO Bob Iger isn't saying yes, but he didn't say no.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
wolverine05.jpg

Changes are in store for the X-Men movie franchise.

20th Century Fox

The X-Men are getting a new boss -- and it's not Professor X.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige will oversee the X-Men franchise now that Disney has acquired most of 20th Century Fox's entertainment assets, Disney CEO Bob Iger told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Thursday.

Those assets include the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Deadpool , The Simpsons, Ice Age and Planet of the Apes.

"I think it only makes sense," Iger said about the absorption of the newly acquired franchises. "I want to be careful here because of what's been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn't be two Marvels."

Some fans have long clamored to see foul-mouthed Deadpool join the Avengers, but when asked directly by THR, Iger hedged.

"Kevin's got a lot of ideas," he said. "I'm not suggesting that's one of them. But who knows?"

Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds isn't against that idea. When a fan tweeted an apparently Photoshopped image of Deadpool and Avengers leader Captain America together in June, Reynolds responded, "It's real in my heart."

The Avengers mixing with other heroes would also please Mark Ruffalo, who plays Hulk, and who repeated a 2014 statement that he'd like to see his character fight Wolverine.

Flip through 32 Marvel-ous images from this super exhibit

See all photos