Thomas Roach on why X-Men and The Fantastic Four should not share the same universe…
Mark Millar spoke months ago about X-Men and The Fantastic Four sharing the same universe and fans were not happy. Millar later stated that this did not mean they would show up in each others films or anything simply that there may be references to them co-existing. Although writer-producer Simon Kinberg said back in May that the charac ters would “live in discrete universes”, he has now said that a crossover between the X-Men and the Fantastic Four is “not out of the realm of possibility.”
Whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe planned ahead with building their universe, it seems Fox is just trying to copy that formular. Maybe I am wrong and there may have been plans to have X-Men and the Fantastic Four share the same universe for some time, but I doubt it. There have been no hints and no indication that they share the same universe and Fox simply think that a team up movie is a guaranteed success.
A film that showed the X-Men and Fantastic Four teaming up would have far too many characters. Many argue that X-Men has had lots of characters in the past and worked but, that is because most characters are simply there to support the main cast. All members of the Fantastic Four are leads in their own right, and if they joined forces with the X-Men you would still be looking at a film with seven or eight leads. It would be quite messy, unless the characters had plenty of development. Should the X-Men be forced into the background just to boost the Fantastic Four?
Despite characters crossing over with each other constantly in the comics, there are many stories that solely feature the respective characters. X-Men has more to explore before giving in and doing a crossover/team movie in an attempt to improve sales figures. It seems a defeatist attitude to do this when Fox has so much source material they can use to develop stories before resorting to what some would call a cop out.
Despite not having seen any footage yet many fans are already criticizing the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. People are not happy about the casting at all. Many people hate the fact that Johnny Storm is being played by Michael B Jordan and is not white, the fact that the cast are too young ,and the fact that the origin story is based off the Ultimate Fantastic Four instead of the traditional origin story.
Whilst you should always wait until a film comes out before judging it, many fans of the Fantastic Four are so filled with hatred about the film that regardless of how good it is, they won’t be convinced. If The Fantastic Four is poorly received the studio may be reluctant to crossover the two franchises in fear of tarnishing the reputation of the other.
The rights for the Fantastic Four will likely remain at Fox for some time, but this really doesn’t mean that every comic property owned by Fox needs to share the same universe and interact with each other. At the moment it seems to be more beneficial to let them both exist on their own. If The Fantastic Four is as good as the actors, directors and writers claim it is then surely it can stand on its own two feet, and will not need a boost from the X-Men franchise.
Would you like to see the X-Men and the Fantastic Four share the same universe, or should Fox keep the properties seperate? Let us know your thoughts…
Thomas Roach
Originally published October 8, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
