The Marvel Movie Rumor That Would Be Epic If True

Hold onto your hats, true believers. 

While Marvel Studios Phase 4 is pretty much set in stone, and Phase 5 is only beginning to take shape, the rumor mill has churned out an eye-popper: the studio is reportedly prepping an Avengers vs. X-Men movie, possibly for Phase 6.

The report comes from our friends at We Got This Covered, whose inside sources have put forth a surprising number of details about the alleged project. WGTC initially posted an extremely detail-light version of this rumor earlier this year, but apparently, those sneaky sources have been hard at work digging up more tidbits in the months since, and they are very interesting indeed.

According to these sources (whom we enjoy picturing skulking around Marvel Studios in trenchcoats and sunglasses, hiding their faces behind newspapers), the proposed picture would come down the pike well after the X-Men have been introduced into the MCU, which is not expected to happen for two years or more. It would involve different Avengers from the ones that we all know and love, which squares with comments made by Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige to MTV News back in June.

"[The new Avengers] will be a very different team than we've seen before; that's what Endgame was all about," Feige said at that time. "It will be a very different incarnation of the team, with some people you've already met, and some people you haven't met yet."

According to WGTC's sources, the team that Marvel has in mind fits that description to a T. Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, and (assuming that Sony and Marvel eventually get around to ironing out their differences) Spider-Man could all be on board, as well as the Jane Foster version of Thor (who is set to make her debut in 2022's Thor: Love and Thunder). Also up for spots on the team: Simu Liu's Shang-Chi (whose solo feature Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings drops in February 2021) and Mahershala Ali's Blade (whose solo movie is thought to be coming down the pike for Phase 5).

Even more intriguingly, the flick is said to be taking the inspiration for its plot from a mind-blowing Marvel storyline: House of M. The 2005 crossover event, penned by comics legend Brian Michael Bendis, took place in an alternate reality which was created by Scarlet Witch after she suffered a mental breakdown. There were many minor differences between this world and the main Marvel continuity, but most notably, Wanda had used her reality-altering abilities to depower virtually every mutant on Earth.

The events of House of M had a lasting effect on the Marvel universe, and elements of the story led into the 2012 Avengers vs. X-Men crossover, also co-written by Bendis. Obviously, a goodly number of tweaks would have to be made to the narrative to adapt the story to the screen, but this is nothing new for Marvel; Captain America: Civil War took a ton of liberties with the 2006-2007 event from which it took its title, just as the one-two punch of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame did with 1991's Infinity Gauntlet limited series.

While the news of a potential Avengers vs. X-Men movie might sound like a whole lot of wishful thinking, it's worth mentioning that the very same sources that supplied WGTC with the intel have been right on the money with their Marvel rumor-mongering on multiple occasions. They had previously leaked that the real Mandarin would be the villain of Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings, that the post-credits scene in the Avengers: Endgame re-release would center on the Hulk, and that iconic Marvel baddie the Taskmaster would be the primary antagonist of next year's Black Widow; all of these reports turned out to be accurate, so it's safe to say that these guys have managed to sneak quite a few files marked TOP SECRET out of Marvel Studios' offices under their trenchcoats.

We may not yet know exactly how Mighty Marvel will approach folding the X-Men into the MCU or how its take will differ from the long-running Fox Studios X-Men film series, but we're going to go ahead and state the obvious: an Avengers vs. X-Men flick has the potential to be nothing short of epic. If we ever do get a formal announcement, the force of fans' heads all around the world exploding will register on the Richter scale. 

Obviously, Marvel loves to keep details about its upcoming films and television series close to the vest, meaning that even if Avengers vs. X-Men is being actively developed, we're not going to hear anything official about it for a long, long time. But you'd better believe that we'll be keeping our eyes peeled and our ears to the ground for any and all rumors, leaks, or news concerning the project. Heck, we might even go out and buy ourselves some sharp trenchcoats and shades, and sneak into Marvel's offices ourselves.