Rumor: Marvel Studios & 20th Century Fox Are Considering Some Kind Of Crossover

Earlier this summer, Marvel Studios kicked off the blockbuster season with Captain America: Civil War. Not only was it a huge comic book flick because it featured a face-off between Iron Man and Captain America, forcing the rest of The Avengers to pick a side and fight against each other, but it also featured the introduction of the new Spider-Man, who finally allowed to co-exist in the Marvel cinematic universe after being isolated at Sony Pictures for about 15 years. Now another comic book movie crossover might be in the works as well.

A new rumor has surfaced, one that should be taken a a dump truck full of salt, that Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox have discussed the possibility of having some kind of crossover featuring the Marvel characters each of the studios own. Find out more about this Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox crossover after the jump.

This rumor came about during the latest episode of Collider Heroes when Matt Key, a producer on Kevin Smith's Fatman on Batman podcast, shared this little nugget with the show (via ComicBookMovie.com):

"I've heard from a few of my sources, my little birds, that Fox and Marvel have... kind of talked, but not really, 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...' We're years away from that ever possibly happening... but I think that's what it would take... Fox joining hands with Marvel..."

That sounds pretty far from anything solid, which is why we're regarding it as nothing more than a rumor at this point. However, it wouldn't be all that surprising of Fox and Marvel decided to work something out after seeing how receptive audiences were to the new Spider-Man and how much it will benefit Sony Pictures in the long run with a whole new Spidey franchise that audiences are actually interested in seeing.

When Sony Pictures decided to share Spider-Man with Marvel Studios, it was after they became unhappy with the critical reception and box office receipts for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Right now Fox probably isn't too pleased with how Fantastic Four performed last year, so that's one property that could benefit from getting a makeover from Marvel Studios. It could be something as big as rebooting Fantastic Four, or as simple as bringing Galactus or Silver Surfer into the MCU.

Beyond that, Fox's X-Men: Apocalypse did pretty well at the box office at first, but the drop in the weekends that followed was something the studio wasn't all that happy with. Plus, this X-Men sequel wasn't nearly as well received as X-Men: Days of Future Past (though I found plenty to enjoy despite the film's abundance of shortcomings). So perhaps seeing the X-Men meet The Avengers, something that's been done in the comic books before, wouldn't be out of the question.

The only problem I can see with the X-Men meeting The Avengers is that the former would probably have to be rebooted in order for it to work. There's such a rich mythology already established with the X-Men, and with all the timeline jumping and changes that have happened, having them meet The Avengers would create some logistical problems. Hypothetically, the current X-Men franchise timeline could eventually catch up with the timeline of the Marvel cinematic universe, but that wouldn't explain a lack of discussion or presence of mutants. So yeah, that would be something difficult to pull off.

There's also the possibility of Deadpool playing around in the Marvel cinematic universe as well, but since that property is doing fine on its own right now, Fox probably doesn't need to give the Merc with a Mouth any help from Marvel for now. But it would be incredible to have Deadpool match wits with Tony Stark or Rocket Raccoon.

Since this is just a rumor for now, there's no telling how serious these possible discussions between Fox and Marvel have been, and therefore no way to tell when we might see some results from these talks. The best we can do is hope that we can continue to see Marvel properties merge closer into a single universe, just so some characters can finally be realized the proper way on the big screen.