Despite the relative under performance of this past summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse — I say relative, because it’s hard to spill too many tears for a move that made over $500 million worldwide — studio Twentieth Century Fox is pushing ahead on filming another chapter in the saga of Marvel’s merry mutants. According to a report from the Journal de Montreal, via Slashfilm, we’ve learned that a new X-Men movie is set to begin production next spring in Montreal, returning to MELS Studios, the same location where X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse were shot. Now the $500,000 dollar question is which X-Men movie is shooting in just a few months??
There are actually a few options here on what the next X-Men film could be. And nope, I’m not counting any Deadpool sequel as an X-Men film. I think Deadpool is very much its own thing that’s just tangentially connected to the mutant world, and probably wouldn’t be counted as an official X-Men movie. So here are our guesses as to what could be filming next year
The New Mutants
This is the most obvious choice. Writer/director Josh Boone (The Fault In Our Stars) has been attached to this one for some time, and has shared images of which characters will be in the film, and even early casting rumors have begun for the characters of Wolfsbane and others. X-Men series producer Simon Kinberg has said as recently as last May that they were looking to start shooting New Mutants in the spring of 2017, and if the report is accurate, then that’s exactly when this new X-Men movie would begin shooting.
But does New Mutants even count as an X-Men movie? Probably not to a hardcore comics fan, but to the studio, another movie about a team of mutants who live at Xavier’s School might as well be an X-Men movie, whether the word “X-Men” is in the title or not. And I’d bet money that the final movie will be called X-Men: The New Mutants, for the sake of branding. The biggest question I have about New Mutants at this point is whether or not this will be tied to the previous continuity, or whether this is the first film an a rebooted X-Men movie universe.
The Dark Phoenix Saga
Before X-Men: Apocalypse came out, writer Simon Kinberg was teasing the possibility of taking the same characters and bringing them not only into the ’90s (Cyclops in flannel! Riot grrrl Jean Grey!) but taking the characters into outer space. The suggestion there being we would be getting a proper version of the most seminal Uncanny X-Men story of all time — The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Longtime fans of the comics would finally see cosmic elements like the Shi’ar Empire and the Imperial Guard, and watch Jean Grey sacrifice her life for the good of the universe on the Moon. While this could still happen, the latest rumors suggest that due to Apocalypse not performing as well as the studio wanted, Bryan Singer is ending his association with the franchise. That means whatever plans they had for a fourth “First Class” movie is probably out the window now. Although stranger things have happened, and maybe Fox is biting the bullet and doing this one after all.
Full-On X-Men Reboot
Another report recently suggest that with Bryan Singer now moving on from the franchise he’s had a hand in for 17 years, a full-on X-Men movie reboot is coming. That means no ties to the previous continuity, which the X-Men: First Class trilogy did have (even if they took that continuity and pretty much broke it, it’s still essentially younger versions of the same characters from the original films, and very much informed by those movies).
While I think a full X-Men movie reboot is very likely to happen, I don’t think it’s going to happen quite as soon as this year. Fox is going to want a high profile director for the gig, and frankly, since they are likely to recast Wolverine for this movie, they are going to take their time with this one. I don’t see a full-on X-Men reboot happening before 2020, which, coincidentally, would be the 20th anniversary of the original film.
Gambit
At this point, I don’t think the long-delayed Gambit movie is even going to happen. The character has never proven to be more than a mostly well-liked (by a certain generation that grew up with the X-Men animated series) supporting character, not really a leading one, even in the comics. He’s not Wolverine or even Deadpool in that regard, Channing Tatum or no Channing Tatum. Besides, does a Gambit movie really count as “the next X-Men film?” That said, it hasn’t been officially cancelled yet, and Gambit is an X-Man, so I will include it as a possibility. But I’m not holding my breath here.
Excalibur
Ok, this one hasn’t been reported or rumored at all, but I want it to happen so I’m just going to leave it right here. In the late ’80s, when the world thought most of the X-Men were dead, the surviving members Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, and Rachel Summers (at that point in time, the Phoenix) moved to the UK, teamed up with Captain Britain and his girlfriend Meggan, and lived in a lighthouse. They called themselves Excalibur, and got into all kinds of wacky adventures across dimensions that had more in common with Doctor Strange than regular X-Men stories.
So I say we get Ellen Page back as Kitty Pryde, Kodi Smit-McPhee back as Nightcrawler, and we just get Sophie Turner to play Jean’s time-lost daughter from the future, Rachel. Ok, I know this is never gonna happen, but I want it to, so maybe if I just put it out there someone at Fox will read this. Here’s hoping.
Which X-Men comic or storyline would you like to see adapted for the big screen? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: Marvel Comics / Fox
