X-Men: What Happens To The Post-Wolverine Franchise
Logan hits cinemas on March 3 and promises to be a violent and closing chapter to Wolverine’s story.
20th Century Fox, the studio that has made and produced all of the X-Men films, has staked out a few release dates and announced some projects for the coming years, but has not announced what these films would be about. According to Fox, the next X-Men related film doesn’t come out until nearly a full year after Logan.
Those release dates are:
March 2, 2018
June 29, 2018
Nov. 3, 2018
Feb. 14, 2019
Besides that, there are a myriad of productions that have also been announced. Starting with the most obvious, Deadpool 2. The first Deadpool was such a critical and commercial success, that you’d have to be a fool not to start production on a follow-up immediately.
Speaking of coming back, Sophie Turner, who played Jean Grey/Phoenix in X-Men: Apocalypse has announced recently that production on the next main series is set to film later this year under the working title of X-Men: SuperNova.
However, most of the cast has not confirmed their return, nor have they confirmed the director of the film or whether or not Bryan Singer is returning to direct it. Considering, X-Men: Apocalypse was regarded a disappointment by fans and critics, especially after the praise that came from the previous installment, X-Men: Days of Future’s Past.
Another project that Fox is looking into is Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone’s adaptation of the X-men team known as the New Mutants.
It’s essentially X-men but instead of the regulars we’ve come to known (Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, etc.) it’s a team consisting of teenagers whose odd powers lead to their training as the new X-Men.
Fox is said to be targeting a spring 2018 release date for the truly strange team.
Another X-Men spin-off team they want to try out is the X-Force, which are essentially an offshoot of the X-Men that takes a more militant and aggressive approach towards its enemies.
Some of the more famous members of this team include Cable, Domino, Wolf’s bane, Warpath, Cannonball, and (of course) X-23. Ryan Reynolds has also said that they are planning a third Deadpool movie where they will introduce the X-Force, and it will spin-off from there with Deadpool being a part of the team.
There are two issues with that though:
One, there are four announced release dates and unless the next Deadpool movies are shot back to back, Fox will probably have to scrap one of these release dates. Two, the reason why Deadpool worked so well is that the tone and style was so different from all the other films in the franchise. In other words, Deadpool works best when he and his stories are separated from everything else, whether in comics or in film. If you want characters from Deadpool films to appear in the other X-Men films, that’s fine, but Fox must consider the Deadpool films to be non-canon.
If we were going to look at that schedule again and attach movies to those release dates, here are my best predictions:
The New Mutants—March 2, 2018
Deadpool Two—June 29, 2018
X-Men: Supernova—Nov. 2, 2018
Deadpool Three or X-Force—Feb. 14, 2019
In other words, I feel Deadpool will be the flagship franchise for Fox moving forward. I also think it is best for Fox to stop with main line X-Men films for a while after X-Men: Supernova. If all else fails Fox could sell all of the characters aside from the Deadpool characters to Marvel Studios to see how they handle it.
Despite Hugh Jackman hanging up the adamantium claws for the final time, I still have high hopes for this franchise.
