I know it's had its ups and downs, but I love the X-MEN movie series. I mean, the first X-MEN kicked off the current superhero craze in 2000, and X2 is considered one of the best superhero movies ever made. Hell, even its lesser entries that I hate have good stuff in them, like Kelsey Grammer as Beast and that scene where Magneto scolds Pyro about Xavier in X3, and even WOLVERINE: ORIGINS had Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth.
However, it seems that after the disappointing box-office of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (making almost 200 million dollars less than previous X-film DAYS OF FUTURE PAST), FOX is looking to finally reboot the franchise. Coupled with the fact that LOGAN will mark the end of Hugh Jackman's tenure as Wolverine, and that the main leads of the new X-franchise – James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and Nicholas Hoult – have all fulfilled their three-picture contract (and become expensive, marquee names in the process), it's looking like a complete overhaul is in order.
Right now Simon Kinberg is overseeing the direction of the new, rebooted X-franchise as writer and producer, while Bryan Singer is apparently no longer involved. The hope is to get the new cast members (McAvoy, Lawrence, Hoult and Fassbender) to join the new X-MEN series, but there's an implication that if they don't sign on they'll move on without them and start completely fresh. Before this shake-up there was a plan for the next X-MEN sequel to be set in the '90s (continuing the "each sequel is a decade" theme), so I'm wondering if that'll stay intact as well if the cast decides to not come back.
In other X-news, DEADPOOL 3 has been greenlit (natch), the teen-centric NEW MUTANTS from FAULT OF OUR STARS director Josh Boone is to start shooting in spring, and GAMBIT is apparently going to go back in active development with a new, soon-to-be-announced filmmaker. How the reboot will affect these three X-MEN spin-offs (as well as the FX series LEGION) is still up in the air.
On the one hand, I'm disappointed that the longest-running superhero franchise (over fifteen years straight!) will finally be coming to an end (assuming the FIRST CLASS cast decide not to re-up their contracts). However, on the other hand, I would like to see the franchise go in a new direction. The success of DR. STRANGE should show studios that audiences are now primed for more weird, colorful, and esoteric comic-book fare. The X-MEN comics could get pretty weird, and it'd be nice to see a more colorful, fun take on the material (not dissimilar to the initial FIRST CLASS reboot – yellow/blue suits and all). I don't dislike the grounded take Singer took for the initial franchise (indeed, that groundedness is probably what made the series palatable to mainstream audiences in the first place), but maybe it's time for some new blood.
But what do you guys think? Sound off below!