Right now, Marvel Studios is the leading purveyor of cinematic superhero events where dozens of heroes untie for one epic movie, but believe it or not, there was a time when 20th Century Fox could’ve been on the wagon at the same time. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS writer Zack Stentz recently revealed the studio once had plans back in 2011 for their own massive crossover event, one that would’ve united the X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Daredevil and perhaps more.
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Stentz was a guest on Kevin Smith’s Fatman Beyond podcast (via Heroic Hollywood) when he talked about in 2011, around the release of FIRST CLASS, he worked on the planned crossover that would’ve seen all these iconic characters on the same screen. But, as you can surmise, the plan didn’t come to fruition and the project was scrapped.
“My ex-partner and I, when we were working at Fox and we were working on X-Men: First Class, we did a secret movie for them that, I can’t tell you what the plot was, but I can tell you that it used all of the characters, all of the Marvel characters that Fox had at the time in 2011. It used the X-Men. It used the Fantastic Four. It used Daredevil. It used Deadpool. Daredevil was still at Fox at the time. We almost had Paul Greengrass directing it which would’ve been so cool but he had another project to do instead. It didn’t end up going but it was a script I was really proud of and it would’ve been really good.”
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While this movie was being planned in 2011 and likely wouldn’t have made it to market to match 2012’s THE AVENGERS, Fox still could’ve bested Marvel when it came to having more characters on the screen at once and become a major competitor with their own shared universe. But, they went a different way, focusing on movies like solo outings for Wolverine and Deadpool (though that had to go through hell to come out), and a reboot of the Fantastic Four which has it’s own sort of “legacy”, to put it gently.
Now that Disney owns Fox, though, perhaps this plan now has a shot at life after all. No doubt the X-Men and the Four will be incorporated into the MCU at some point, which would make for a cinematic outing that could even rival the event status of INFINITY WAR and ENDGAME.