The future of the X-Men franchise is totally up in the air at the moment, following the recent announcement that, after weeks of rumours, Disney has indeed bought out Fox.
In the immediate future, of course, nothing much will change. For instance, there are already three X-films from Fox coming in 2018: April’s The New Mutants, June’s Deadpool 2 and November’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix. After that, though, who knows what’s going to happen to the slate of movies – not to mention the franchise’s associated TV shows – that are in the works?
Understandably, fans are worried that their most anticipated projects might be given the axe, but we can now confirm that at least one flick that everyone’s excited about will still be heading into production. And that’s because Discussing Film has revealed via Twitter that X-Force will thankfully not be affected by the merger.
Set to be written and directed by Drew Goddard, who was once poised to launch a Sinister Six movie for Sony, the pic will largely revolve around a “Black Ops force of down and dirty mutant warriors who are far more ruthless than their X-Men counterparts.” It is, as expected, the adult-oriented version of the X-Men universe, and the producers will no doubt have a spring in their step following the back-to-back success of Deadpool and Logan.
Truth be told, even with this confirmation – which is great to hear – there’s still a lot of uncertainty swirling around the Disney-Fox deal, and that’ll likely continue for weeks (months?) to come. Nevertheless, X-Men composer and editor John Ottman believes Kevin Feige is the only one capable of bringing together both franchises.
Nobody is more passionate about these characters. Everything he touches turns to gold, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Marvel’s mutants.
You could say that Feige has the Midas touch. After 10 years and a ludicrous amount of box office revenue, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become Hollywood’s biggest outlet for competent, expertly crafted superhero movies. So let’s just hope that continues long into Phase 4 when the X-Men and other long-time Marvel characters begin to enter the fold.
