Marvel Studios And 20th Century Fox: The Superhero Crossovers We Want To See

With word that 20th Century Fox has “talked” about teaming up with Marvel Studios thanks to the huge success of Spider-Man in Civil War, fans of the Avengers, X-Men and the Fantastic Four franchises may soon get their wish to see all their favorite Marvel characters on screen together.

The rumors came via the Collider Heroes podcast, where host Jon Schnepp welcomed guest Matt Key from Marvel Movie News. Key went on to mention that 20th Century Fox has had internal discussions about sharing characters with Marvel Studios.

“I’ve heard from a few of my sources, my little birds that Fox and Marvel have … kind of talked, but not really,” Keys mentioned. “But like there’s interest from Fox, like, ‘Ooh, y’know, what they did with Sony and Spider-Man is actually pretty cool, like, maybe …'”

That being said, he also warned that nothing was in either studios’ immediate plans before shedding light on what the next step entails.

“We’re years away from that ever possibly happening. But I think that’s what it would take … Fox joining hands with Marvel.”

And while an Avengers/X-Men crossover is what immediately comes to everyone’s minds, Yahoo! Movies was quick to point out that the first characters to grace the Marvel Studios universe probably wouldn’t have an “X” on their resume.

“Obviously the big hope for movie fans is that members of the ‘X-Men’ posse will now appear in the MCU. But even though ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ was met with mediocre reviews and made just $523 million – over $200 million less than its predecessor ‘Days Of Future Past’ – it’s highly unlikely that Fox would want Marvel to have contact with a series that has amassed over $4.3 billion for the studio.”

Instead, Yahoo! suggests the failed Fantastic Four franchise would make the most sense to be the first to cross over.

“What’s more likely is that Fox will allow Marvel Studios to bring ‘The Fantastic Four’ into their Cinematic Universe, as each of their attempts to do so have been met with a mediocre response, most recently in 2015 when Josh Trank’s maligned reboot was met with a woeful critical response and took in just $168 million.”

So with that being said, what are some of the superhero slugfests and team-ups fans could look forward to? Here are a few that come to mind:

How would a Marvel/Fox superhero crossover work? – Hold on guys, this *just might* work https://t.co/mKrcHPwzYK via @DigitalSpy

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Hulk Vs. Thing
The titans of the Marvel universe first squared off in the epic, Jack Kirby drawn Fantastic Four #12 when General Ross tasked the Fantastic Four with finding and capturing the Hulk. But this battle was far from the last for these two. In addition to squaring off several times over the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run, including issue #25 which Realm of Comicdom deemed the most epic encounter ever between the pair, Hulk vs Thing was born to translate on the big screen. Between Mark Ruffalo’s reserved Bruce Banner trading blows with Josh Trank’s reimagined behemoth, you can already imagine the collective property damage these two would unleash.

Wolverine In the Avengers
Sure he’s “the best there is at what he does” but lately he’s only been able to do it in the 20th Century Fox X-Men universe. In the mid 2000s, in order to maximize his exposure (and their profits), Marvel put Wolverine in just about every book they published, which included making him an Avenger. Can you picture Hugh Jackman (who claims he’s retiring from the role following Wolverine 3, according to Screenrant) trading barbs with Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man? Or trading blows with the aforementioned Hulk as he’s done in the comics? We can too. And we’d love to see it happen!

Deadpool Vs. Spider-Man
The “Merc With A Mouth” has met “Your Friendly Neighborhood Wall-Crawler” several times in the Marvel universe with hilarious results. In fact, the pairing was so successful that in 2016 Marvel actually went ahead and gave the dynamic duo their own series. With a solid, wise-cracking performance by Tom Holland in Civil War under his belt and Ryan Reynolds fulfilling his dream role as Deadpool in the Fox smash this past winter, this might just be the most anticipated – and most difficult – team-up to take place, what with the R-rating attached to the latter. But a fan can dream, right?

[Image via 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios]