In the last handful of years, we have been getting absolutely bombarded with superhero movies. Warner Bros. has officially launched their DC Extended Universe withBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justiceand they have a massive slate ahead of them. Marvel Studios is chugging along and they have at least two movies coming out every year, with three coming out next year includingSpider-Man: Homecoming. But, Fox is still around and still makingX-Men movies, like the little engine that could, they haven’t stopped and they seemingly have no intention of doing so.
Fox officially ushered in the age of the modern superhero movie withX-Menback in 2000, and nothing has really been the same ever since. To date, all of the movies in theX-Menmovie universe have grossed more than $4 billion according toBox Office Mojo, and it actually is at an all time high, by some accounts.Deadpoolraked in record money for the studio earlier this year andApocalypsecontinued with the mainX-Menfranchise, still managing to pull in pretty decent money as well.
Fox has definitely made some mistakes along the way, and up untilX-Men: Days of Future Past, theX-Menfranchise had never been one to pull in the massive money that one has come to expect from superhero movies. However, it is still more than enough to keep Fox happy. Fans were hoping that after the failure ofFantastic Fourand with a lot of the classicX-Mencast leaving the franchise, that perhaps a deal could be worked out forX-Men charactersto finally make their way to Marvel, much like what happened with Sony. That seems very unlikely, as Fox seems to have big plans for the future of theX-Menfranchise. What are those plans exactly? Well, we’re glad you asked, because here is everything we know about the futureX-Menmovies.
8Deadpool 2
A lot of details about specific futureX-Menmovies are way up in the air right now, but one thing you can count on is aDeadpoolsequel.Ryan Reynoldshad been trying to get aDeadpoolsolo movie made for a decade, but he and fans knew that to do it right, it had to be rated R. Fox figured that would hinder the movie from making enough money to justify making it, and it turned out that they were very wrong about that.Tim MillerandReynoldsgot to make the movie and not only was it a critical smash that fans loved as well, but it made a truck load of money.Deadpoolmade nearly $780 million worldwide and is now the highest grossing movie in theX-Menfranchise. Fox almost immediately greenlit a sequel and even put a in a post credit scene that referenced a little bit of what we can expect fromDeadpool 2.
Thanks to that post credit scene, we know thatDeadpool 2will finally bring the character of Cable into theX-Menfranchise, but we don’t yet know who will be playing him. The other really great thing for fans ofDeadpoolis that the core creative team from the first movie are all coming back.Tim Millerwill be back to direct,ZombielandwritersRhett ReeseandPaul Wernickare penning the script and of course,Ryan Reynoldswill be back as Wade Wilson. We don’t know when exactlyDeadpool 2will be coming out, but Fox is very likely going to want to fast track it if they can. At the earliest, we could expect a sequel next year if they really get moving, but 2018 seems more likely. Either way,Deadpoolis going to a massive part of Fox’s plans moving forward.
The idea of anX-Forcemovie has been floating around at Fox for a very long time in an on-again, off-again sort of fashion. However, during the course of the press tour forX-Men: Apocalypse,Bryan Singerrevealed thatSimon Kindbergis in the earlier stages of writing the script and that the movie is part of the pans for the studio in the near-ish future. The success ofDeadpoolno doubt has a lot to do with Fox being big on finally gettingX-Forceoff the ground.
In the comics, theX-Forceis very closely associated with theX-Men, but they are more of a band of mercenaries and take a bit more of a mercenary style approach to getting the job done. It is a bit more gritty. The original leader of theX-Forcewas Cable, who will be appearing inDeadpool 2, so that could easily build out to anX-Forcemovie. Plus,Deadpoolhas been a part of theX-Forcebefore, so the team is already coming together. Not to mention thatSingerhas already teased an appearance by the fan favorite character X-23, who is basically a female Wolverine clone. “I have discussed that with the studio. I actually initially pitched the X-Force and the female,” saidSingerin an interview with Fandango. We have no idea when anX-Forcemovie would land in theaters, but it would probably be sometime afterDeadpool 2.
6Wolverine
Hugh Jackmanand his portrayal of Wolverine has been a tremendously large part of what has made theX-Menfranchise what it is today. He started off in the firstBryan SingerX-Menmovie back in 2000 and has been playing the character ever since. Next year, the third soloWolverinemovie will be coming out and sadly, it will beJackman’s last turn as the character. So, we do know that we will definitely be getting one moreJackmanWolverine performance, but as for the future of the character in the franchise, that is much less certain.
James Mangoldis returning to directWolverine 3and it will be taking place in the future, loosely adapting theOld Man Logancomic book storyline.Patrick Stewartwill also be returning, presumably for a last time, as Professor X. For right now, it looks like the rest of theX-Menmovie universe will be trucking ahead without a hard reboot, even though several of the characters have been recast, thanks to time travel andDays of Future Past. But because of Wolverine’s character ark in the franchise, that won’t be as easy to do. No doubt, we will be getting a new version of Wolverine at some point because he is simply too popular of a character to just kill off, but we have no idea how that will happen or who it will be. Possibly X-23 could take up some of that mantle, but nobody can replaceJackman.
5New Mutants
There are not a lot of very certain things for the future of theX-Menfranchise, but there is at the very least a couple of new movies that we can definitely count on, andNew Mutantsis one of them. DirectorJosh Booneis already attached to direct the movie and it is in active development, even though there isn’t a firm release date set for it yet.New Mutantsfollows a group of young, somewhat lesser known, mutants who are in training to eventually becomeX-Men.Boonetook to his Instagram a little while ago and posted several pictures that seemed to reveal the lineup forNew Mutants, which looks to include Magik, Wolfsbane, Dani Moonstar, Cannonball, Sunspot and Warlock. As mentioned, many of these are lesser known characters to the general public, but they are pretty interesting. It hasn’t been confirmed, but there are persistent rumors that casting has already started, and thatGame of ThronesstarMaisie Williamshas been cast as Wolfsbane. We have no idea when or exactly what it will look like, but count on seeing aNew Mutantsmovie at some point in the future.
X-Men: Days of Future Pastdid a lot of great things. It wasBryan Singer’s return to the franchise he launched and he managed to largely undo many of the mistakes made by the much malignedX-Men: The Last Stand. The problem is, because it did so usingtime travel, things are a bit messy. We now have characters that appear to be progressing forward a decade and a half in time and barely aging a day. We also have a bunch of characters from the original trilogy mingling with characters introduced inFirst Classand beyond. It seemed likeApocalypsestarted the process of of pushing the old out and focusing on the new cast, which should eventually serve as a full-on soft reboot of the franchise, but there is no doubt this is going to get confusing at some point. The timeline doesn’t appear to be cleaning itself up anytime soon either, asDeadpoolandX-Forceare going to be taking place in the present time and the mainX-Menmovies are not, at least right now. And even if they did want to make the mainX-Menmovies present day, they would have to recast the roles yet again because of age. Just get ready for continuity to get a bit confusing.
390sX-MenMovie
The timeline in the currentX-Menmovie universe may be a bit messy, but it is what it is and it will lead to some exciting and potentially cool things, despite the potential confusion. For manyX-Menfans, it wasn’t the original movie that got them on board, it wasX-Men: The Animated Seriesfrom the90s. Interestingly enough, it has already been said that the next mainX-Menmovie will be taking place during the 90s, moving forward roughly another ten years in the timeline fromApocalypse. We know very little about the movie, but for anyone who has seenApocalypseknows, it seems likely that we are getting a Dark Phoenix storyline redo, after the mess that wasThe Last Stand. Beyond that, it should be pretty cool to see anX-Menmovie that has the aesthetic of the 90s TV series. We sadly don’t know who will be directing the movie, but that says a lot in itself.
2Bryan Singer
The modern superhero movie owes an awful lot toBryan Singerand what he did withX-Men, and maybe more so toX2. After returning to direct bothDays of Future PastandApocalypse, it looks likeSingerwill be stepping back from the franchise, at least for now.Singerhas said that he definitely won’t be directing the nextX-Menmovie and that he wants to go do something “very different.” The thing is,X-MenisSinger’s baby and there is no way he will be leaving the franchise entirely. He will probably be serving as a consultant, executive producer or something like that.Singeralso said that he could see himself returning to theX-Menfranchise at some point or another, but for right now it is looking like there is going to be some new blood in the director’s chair. That worked out pretty well whenMatt Vaughntook over onFirst Class, but not so well whenBrett Ratnertook over onLast Stand. So, who knows what will happen, but either way, it is happening.
1Simon Kindberg
Even thoughBryan Singermay be taking a step back from theX-Menfranchise, another long term presence with the series will be a firm presence in the next series ofX-Menmovies.Simon Kindbergis a massive voice for theX-Menfranchise as a producer and writer. He is currently working on theX-Forcescript and has been producing the series ever sinceX-Men: First Class.Kindberghas also been a massive voice in the press and is clearly a huge cog in the connected universe. On the press tour forApocalypse, he revealed details about a possibleFantastic Foursequel and a bunch of other franchise details. There have even been some rumors thatKindbergmay be stepping in to direct one of the upcoming movies in theX-Menfranchise, but that has yet to be confirmed. What we know for sure is thatKindbergwill remain one of the most powerful voices behind the scenes of the futureX-Menmovies.
Fox may have made some mistakes along the way, but theX-Menfranchise is one of their most bankable properties and they intend to hold onto it. WithDeadpooland a brand new cast of young mutants having joined theX-Menthis year, there is some new blood and some new things to play with, even if we don’t know exactly what direction all of that new blood will be moving in. Be sure to stay tuned as we will be keeping you up to date on all of the new news regarding the future of theX-Menfranchise.
