UPDATE: With rumors stirring about an X-Force movie today thanks to the purchase of a domain name, 20th Century Fox has not only given in and admitted that they are developing a film based on the team, but also announced that they have already found a writer/director. The Hollywood Reporter says that Jeff Wadlow, who served both duties on the upcoming Kick-Ass 2, is now working on the script and looking at the director's chair as well. The filmmaker likely got consideration because Mark Millar is not only the author of the Kick-Ass comics but is also a consultant on Fox's version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's strange for this to be announced so suddenly, and one wonders if this wasn't going to be one of the surprises that the studio had in store for their panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.
Read the original story below.
Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is the culmination of years of mutant storytelling, mashing the world of his original X-Men films together with the early mutant versions of the characters from Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. It is, to fans of Marvel’s mutant heroes, what The Avengers was a few years back – the ability to see several characters sharing the same screen in an adventure that spans decades.
But it also might be the start of something bigger.
The Web site XMenFilms.com notes that 20th Century Fox, the studio behind Singer’s upcoming X-Men movie (as well as The Wolverine, which opens later this month), has registered the domain name for XForceMovie.com, hinting at the possibility of a future movie or possible franchise built around The X-Force.
“Who?” you ask. Good question. The X-Force was a team of mutants led by the cyborg hero Cable. It was populated by members of The New Mutants, but transitioned members on its roster over the years, pulling in recognizable heroes like Cyclops, Cannonball, Deadpool, Wolverine, Sunspot and Warpath.
That’s where things get interesting. Sunspot and Warpath are X-Men members who Singer has gone out of his way to cast in Days of Future Past, even though they were not part of the original storyline from the Future Past comics. This indicates that Singer weaved them into his storyline – perhaps on a mandate from Fox – so that they could be introduced in next summer’s film, then expanded into an X-Force movie.
The key character whom you’d have to pull in for an X-Force movie, however, is Cable. A militaristic soldier introduced as a leader for the New Mutants, Cable has appeared in years of Marvel books, teaming with such interesting characters as Deadpool, The Underground and The X-Men. He’d be a commanding figure to introduce into the cinematic universe of the X-Men movies, so long as Fox casts him properly.
And that’s not all. While working the Wolverine press circuit, Hugh Jackman started dropping hints that he has taken meetings with Marvel to fight alongside The Avengers and/or Spider-Man in future superhero movies. Speaking with Collider, the Aussie actor said of a potential mashup:
Mate, I ask the same question. I literally asked the same question the other day to Tom from Marvel who works with all the other studios, he works with Sony and Fox, that’s his job to liaise. I said, ‘Man, can this happen?’ and he goes ‘Look, it’s not gonna be easy because you’re working with different studios and they’re their properties.’ But I believe—maybe I’m optimistic, I understand at Marvel they’ve got The Avengers, they’ve got a lot of big things going on, but at some point I just find it almost impossible that there’s not a way to bring Iron Man, all the Avengers characters, Wolverine, the X-Men characters, Spider-Man, and somehow get them in together.
That seems farther away than an X-Force movie, which feels like the pieces are snapping into place for it to happen. But it’s exciting that all of the studios are taking care with their superhero properties, understanding that the sky can be the limit, when you build your world properly.
