20 Century Fox may have hit a stumbling block with development on Deadpool 2 following the departure of director Tim Miller, but it seems the studio is already turning its eye towards a third movie for the Merc with a Mouth.
According to a report over at THR, Fox is looking towards a storyline to introduce the team of X-Force into Deadpool 3, following Cable’s appearance in the second movie. An X-Force movie had previously been in development at the studio, with Kick-Ass 2 helmer Jeff Wadlow penning the script, however it was shelved when the first Deadpool movie was given the greenlight.
The article also goes on to discuss the future of the main X-Men franchise following this year’s X-Men: Apocalypse, which marked the final movie of the three-film deal for its stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult.
Reportedly, the studio is looking to “reconfigure” the main series, with writer-producer Simon Kinberg working on a new script that will “press the reset button”; Bryan Singer won’t be returning to direct, but the screenplay is being written with McAvoy, Fassbender and Lawrence in mind – although the article notes that should the studio want them to return, they won’t come cheap.
There are several question marks over the future of the X-Men franchise at the moment; in March, Hugh Jackman will hang up his claws as Wolverine with the release of Logan [watch the trailer here], and it was thought that the next release would be Deadpool 2, although Fox is yet to announce a replacement for Miller in the director’s chair (John Wick co-director David Leitch is said to be front-runner). The studio is still said to be keen on pushing ahead with its Channing Tatum-headlined Gambit movie, although that has found itself lingering in development hell for the past couple of years, and it also has Josh Boone’s New Mutants movie in development, with reports suggesting that may go into production in the spring.
Where would you like to see the X-Men franchise going after Logan? Is another soft reboot of the main series the right movie, or should Fox concentrate on its various spinoffs such as Deadpool and The New Mutants? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Originally published November 10, 2016. Updated November 30, 2022.
