The following contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine, which is now playing in theaters.

Deadpool & Wolverine is the most important film so far in Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, showing audiences all of the wonderful and unexpected possibilities that await in the vast multiverse. The film follows Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) as he desperately seeks a way to save his universe after its anchor, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is killed during the events of Logan. Deadpool teams up with a down-on-his-luck version of Wolverine from a different reality, only for the two heroes to become stranded in the Void, where they encounter the villainous Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) and her band of familiar mutants.

Deadpool & Wolverine features multiple exciting cameos, including the return of Dafne Keen’s X-23 from Logan, Jennifer Garner’s Elektra Natchios from the 2003 Daredevil franchise, Chris Evans’s Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four, Wesley Snipes’s Blade from his self-titled trilogy, and even Channing Tatum’s Gambit, who never officially appeared in any films. While these cameos are all very exciting for longtime Marvel fans, viewers can’t help but notice one glaring absence in Deadpool & Wolverine. Even though the film is set in Fox’s X-Men universe, almost none of the X-Men appear therein. However, this absence isn’t a slight against the now-defunct superhero franchise but rather hints that it will have an even bigger role to play in the epic finale of the Multiverse Saga.

The X-Men Don’t Appear In Deadpool & Wolverine (But That’s A Good Thing)

Audiences may have been hoping for cameos from the X-Men in Deadpool & Wolverine, but the film features very few members of the team. Aside from Wolverine, Colossus, Yukio, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, the official X-Men team members don’t play a role in the new movie. One might have at least expected a cameo from Sir Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, especially since his twin sister, Cassandra Nova, is the main villain of the film. Yet even Stewart, who already reprised his role in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is nowhere to be found, though his character is mentioned several times.

It seems odd that the X-Men would sit out the events of Deadpool & Wolverine, especially when audiences have waited for so long to see their favorite mutants return in the MCU. Fox X-Men characters like Cyclops, Storm, Iceman, Rogue, and Jean Grey all deserve to return before they are rebooted in the MCU, but time is running short for them to do so, with the Multiverse Saga set to conclude in just three years with Avengers: Secret Wars. The X-Men’s absence from Deadpool & Wolverine may at first seem like a bad sign for the mutants’ return, but it is great news for fans of the original Fox franchise.

Marvel Is Saving The X-Men For Avengers: Secret Wars

Although the X-Men aren’t featured in Deadpool & Wolverine, the MCU may be saving these characters for a bigger event shortly. The Multiverse Saga is set to conclude with an epic two-part finale event, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will see the Russo brothers return to direct and will feature Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. Secret Wars is expected to follow the storyline of Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 comics event of the same name. This iconic storyline features the collision of Earth-616, the mainline continuity in Marvel Comics, and Earth-1610, the Ultimate Universe. Heroes and villains from both universes are transported to the otherworldly Battleworld, where they are forced to fight for the very existence of their realities.

Avengers: Secret Wars may be setting up a similar story, this time featuring a collision between Earth-616, the mainline continuity housing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Earth-10005, the timeline featured in Fox’s X-Men franchise. The MCU may then be saving the X-Men for the finale event in the Multiverse Saga. Allowing these characters to appear in Deadpool & Wolverine may have been a great moment of fanservice, but would have also muddied the potential storyline for Secret Wars. By their absence, the X-Men are being set up for a much larger role in the Multiverse Saga than simple cameos. Their world will be a central focus in Phase 6, as they finally collide with the MCU.

This theory is also backed up by the post-credit scene of The Marvels, which reveals that Monica Rambeau is stranded in the X-Men universe with Kelsey Grammer’s Beast and a new character, Binary, played by Lashana Lynch. The MCU is clearly setting up a large-scale crossover between Earth-616 and the X-Men universe–and isn’t ready to spoil the storyline in films leading up to Secret Wars.

Secret Wars Will Be The Death Of The X-Men Universe

If the MCU closely adapts the 2015 Secret Wars storyline from the comics, audiences can expect the Multiverse Saga to conclude with the death of the X-Men franchise. After the war on Battleworld, Earth-1610 is mostly destroyed, bringing the Ultimate Universe to an end and initiating a soft reboot of Earth-616. The MCU has the opportunity to do something similar with its version of Secret Wars. With a reboot of the X-Men on the horizon, Secret Wars will inevitably be the final chapter of Fox’s franchise, marking the end of Earth-10005.

However, not everything from the Ultimate Universe is destroyed at the end of Secret Wars, which may be the case for the X-Men universe at the end of the Multiverse Saga. In the comics, some characters from the Ultimate Universe, including Miles Morales, are transported to the main Marvel universe after this event, becoming a regular part of Earth-616’s storylines. The same is likely to occur after Avengers: Secret Wars, with Deadpool and potentially some other X-Men characters permanently making the jump over to the MCU. Even with the permanent end of Fox’s superhero universe, the franchise can live on through a select group of characters who carry on the torch in the MCU.

The Multiverse Saga may seem to be ignoring the X-Men for now, but fans shouldn’t be dismayed. The mutants’ absence so far is a good sign for their potential role in Avengers: Secret Wars, which will finally give the characters the ending that they deserve.