Many fans are excited to see the Fantastic Four and the X-Men finally join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though it will take a while before it finally happens.

And professional geek and movie director Kevin Smith is stoked as well, discussing the possible futures of the franchise with co-host Marc Bernardin on the Fat Man Beyond podcast.

The two addressed the fact Marvel Studios would gain control of the franchises after Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox was completed, allowing Kevin Feige to introduce the Fantastic Four and the X-Men as he and the other producers see fit.

"It means that the things we've been hoping for are gonna come to pass. Kevin Feige and the Marvel Universe get to play with those toys sooner rather than later," Smith said.

They discussed the possibility of Avengers 4 reshoots possibly adding the characters to the film before it premieres in theaters next year, imagining it as an unlikely "best case scenario."

"They don't even have to do it," Smith began. "I guess on one level you could be like, 'How do we top killing half the Marvel Universe?' By bringing them back and bringing in, like, 'Fuckin look at the X-Men! Even though we've seen him a thousand times, this is our X-Men now! The better X-Men!'"

Bernardin suggested the possibility of shuffling in alternate realities, and folding in some of the X-Men characters we've already seen before. But that begged the question of how feasible the reshoots would be, considering the deal isn't finalized and big casting decisions are nearly impossible to keep secret.

Regardless, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are coming to the MCU. It's just a matter of time when we see them.

Bob Iger, the Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, already said that Feige would be granted control of Fox's Marvel characters, effectively promising that these fan-favorite characters would be jumping to the MCU at some point.

"I think it only makes sense," Iger said. "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."

We'll see how it all works out in the near future, and if they'll be added to the upcoming Avengers movie — which seems very unlikely, so don't get your hopes up.

Avengers 4 premieres in theaters on May 3, 2019.