You won’t find that many X-Men fans who were disappointed by Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, last month’s fantastic, time-travelling series update. However, that could change now that X-Force creator Rob Liefeld is saying the success of that film – and the quick green-lighting of follow-up X-Men: Apocalypse – has put a monkey wrench in Fox’s plans to bring X-Force to the big screen.
Monday, Liefeld responded to a fan question about the status of an X-Force movie by tweeting the following:
Everything changed when X-Men Apocalypse was announced… RT @actionscomics: @robertliefeld and the movie of x-force? What’s new?
— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) June 2, 2014
When a knowledgeable fan responded to that answer by asking whether that meant the upcoming film would include Cable, the leader of X-Force, Liefeld tweeted:
NO! No knowledge at all RT @TheAceOfKnaves: @robertliefeld @actionscomics are you inadvertently admitting Cable is gonna be in Apocalypse? — robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) June 2, 2014
He later followed that up with another tweet, writing:
I have no idea if Cable will appear in future X-Men films. Hard to believe he won’t appear in Apocalypse but I don’t expect it.
— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) June 2, 2014
So, it appears that Liefeld is as in the dark as all of us regarding any progress on an X-Force movie over at Fox. That’s too bad, given how cool those characters are, but if Fox wants to introduce audiences to them, X-Men: Apocalypse definitely seems like the right place to do so. After all, Cable and Apocalypse were strongly linked in the comics.
In one of Cable’s most major story arcs, he time-traveled to the present-day to prevent the awakening of Apocalypse from a deep slumber (the same kind of awakening that Wolverine’s time-traveling in Days of Future Past is implied to have caused). Unfortunately, Cable’s time-traveling actually succeeds in causing the awakening. It was later revealed that Cable was designed to kill Apocalypse and only became the hero he became because of Apocalypse’s meddling. So, the characters often go hand-in-hand, which makes Liefeld’s concerns at the character’s omission more understandable. However, Wolverine’s time-traveling shenanigans in Days of Future Past suggest that he’ll take the place of Cable in the Apocalypse storyline.
Fans of X-Force won’t be encouraged by another tweet from Liefeld, in which he flippantly dismissed questions of a movie with the following tweet:
Coin toss I’d wager… RT @theshaTAY: @Meeea @robertliefeld Will there even be an X Force movie? — robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) June 2, 2014
As it stands, Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) was tapped by Fox to pen an X-Force script last year, and there has been little progress since. Still, Liefeld has some opinions about an X-Force film if one does end up on Fox’s to-do list. When asked who he’d nominate to play Cable in a film, Liefeld tweeted:
Tom Hardy, Jon Hamm RT @philmoorhead: @robertliefeld you probably get this a lot, but who would you like to see play Cable?
— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) June 2, 2014
So, what do you think? Should X-Force happen? Or is X-Men: Apocalypse a much more exciting reality to look forward to?
