Is Fox Planning An ‘X-Men’ Soft Reboot Already?
20th Century Fox found great success this year with the critical and audience love ofDeadpool. However, they also took a step back with an underperformingX-Men: Apocalypse,stagnant developmenton aGambitspin-off, and recently,troubling personnel shufflingonDeadpool 2. All that combined with the fact thatLoganwill be the last movie featuringHugh Jackmanas Wolverine, and we might be looking at Fox’s comic book universe stumbling very soon. And the studio is reportedly already trying to recover with a potential soft reboot of theX-Menfranchise.
The Hollywood Reporterrecounts the problems that 20th Century Fox has faced lately with their comic book franchises, and within the report is word from multiple sources that the primaryX-Menfranchise is in the midst of potentially being reconfigured.Simon Kinberg, who has been overseeing theX-Menmovies as a producer and writer, is currently working on a new script for the next X-Men movie. However, the franchise has some uncertain variables.
First of all,Bryan Singerwill not be returning to direct anotherX-Menmovie, despite therumor we had heardthat the nextX-Mensequel would shoot in 2017 with him behind the camera. This is a bit surprising since Singer was already talking about how the next moviecould take the mutants into space, perhaps delivering a better version of the Dark Phoenix Saga to the big screen.
In addition,Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoyandNicholas Houlthave finished up their three-picture deals, and if 20th Century Fox wants to bring those stars back, it’s going to cost them some big money. Simon Kinberg is writing the new script with the hopes that they’ll come back, but if they don’t, we could see a softX-Menreboot happen. Perhaps we’d follow the new X-Men like Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler.
Following the disappointment that wasX-Men: Apocalypse, it might not be a bad idea forX-Mento take a break for awhile. After all, Fox alreadyhasNew Mutantsin the works, which could be a great way for a superpowered team to stay alive at the studio without recycling the same primary mutant team we’ve seen in six movies now. Beyond that, if Fox really gets into trouble, maybe a deal with Disney and Marvel Studios isn’t as out of the question as we have thought. However, I think it’ll take a few years before something like that will be considered.
