Jeff Wadlow on why his X-Force movie didn’t happen

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It's been several years since Jeff Wadlow first signed on to write and potentially direct X-FORCE, and although that project obviously didn't come to fruition, we will be seeing X-FORCE take its first steps on the big-screen in the upcoming DEADPOOL 2. While speaking with Collider recently, Jeff Wadlow spilled a few details about what his plans were for X-FORCE and why the project ultimately didn't happen.

Although 20th Century Fox quite liked the draft which Jeff Wadlow had written, they were torn between going with an X-FORCE movie or a DEADPOOL movie. "I’ve always loved Deadpool and I tried to rehabilitate him in my X-Force movie because, like the rest of the fans, I felt like they totally screwed it up in X-Men: Origins," Wadlow said. "I had actually been talking to Ryan Reynolds about playing him in my X-Force movie, but my X-Force movie was much more focused on Cable and the New Mutants becoming this paramilitary unit. So, Fox was trying to decide whether they going to do the Deadpool solo movie or my X-Force movie." As unfortunate as it was for Wadlow, DEADPOOL wound up being a huge success, and although Wadlow loved the film and is excited for DEADPOOL 2, he does admit that getting bumped is "a little bit of a bummer, but that's life in the big leagues."

As for how Jeff Wadlow's take on X-FORCE would have been different from the X-MEN movies which came before, the writer/director said that it would have followed mutants of a different class rather than "private school" mutants of Xavier's school.

When I pitched for it, I said, ‘If X-Men is about the mutants that get to go to private school, I want to make a movie about the mutants that go to public school. They’re the kids that don’t have a jet swooping down to help them, with Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. What’s it like when you don’t have those guys helping you out and you’re forced to figure out who you are in this world?'

As I mentioned above, DEADPOOL 2 will introduce us to X-Force, but the super duper team will soon spin-off into their own feature film to be written and directed by Drew Goddard (CABIN IN THE WOODS). DEADPOOL 2 will hit theaters on May 18, 2018.