That's revisionist history.
X-men 1 and X2 (X3 too probably, I don't remember) were still very much backed by Marvel. These films along with the original Raimi films were still championed by the House of Ideas back in the day. They would even advertise these movies in their comics, back then. Insane right? They even got multiple waves of action figures and Toybiz (which owned Marvel then) even got the stars to bring their action figures to their talk show appearances on Conan, Jay, Dave, Craig, Regis & Kathy Lee to help promote their merch. JLaw's Mystique has a higher chance of surviving this movie than us getting Dark Phoenix movie action figures. With 2 months left until the movie comes out, the best we can hope for are shirts and printed material.
Now you see half a dozen sippy cups and popcorn tubs and "OMG, embarrassment of riches?" I know it's been frustrating to be an X-men fanboy, and not getting any merch. It's also been frustrating seeing the team get pushed aside in favour of Inhumans and the like in the comics. But it didn't used to be like this.
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