An X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover movie seems inevitable, right? After all, crossover comic book movies are by far the biggest thing in Hollywood right now, and even producer Simon Kinberg has said in the past that there is a motivation to "be like Marvel." While this may seem like an obvious future, however, the folks at 20th Century Fox have remained coy about the idea, never actually confirming that a meeting of their two biggest superhero franchises is in the works. So leave it to the Sony Pictures hack to shed some light on what's really going on behind the scenes.
In their most recent report about information disseminating from the studio leak, The Daily Beast has revealed very strong evidence that an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover is in the works - courtesy of an email written by Michael De Luca, co-president of production for Columbia Pictures, to Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-Chairman Amy Pascal this past October. In the conversation, De Luca writes that he has learned directly from Simon Kinberg that Fox is working on an X-Men and Fantastic Four team-up movie, and suggests that Sony plan something similar with their Spider-Man property - namely linking together a new Spider-Man movie, the female-led Spider-Man movie, Venom, and Sinister Six for a "eventual mega movie." (my only question is, was this not the plan that was drawn up around this time last year?)
This past May, Simon Kinberg went on the record saying that the X-Men and the characters in Josh Trank's upcoming Fantastic Four reboot "live in discrete universes," and while that was initially seen as being a real barrier between the franchises, the truth is that it's a wall that's pretty easily to get past. The Fantastic Four synopsis that was revealed earlier this month said the members of the titular team get their powers in the same way as the Ultimate Fantastic Four did in the comics: by teleporting through an alternate dimension. With this technology put into play, it's not incredibly hard to see how the two superhero teams might wind up in the same world together - even if they are apart right now.
The most logical explanation for why Fox hasn't announced a full future slate of comic book movies a la Marvel Studios is because they're not 100% sure that they are going to greenlight the idea just yet. After all, the X-Men franchise is more popular than ever right now, but the public is wary of what to expect from Josh Trank's Fantastic Four. Other than the pressures of a potentially saturated comic book movie market, there really is no reason right now for the studio to jump the gun. Unless there is an overwhelmingly positive response to the first Fantastic Four trailer (whenever that comes), it's possible that we won't get any kind of official announcement of a future X-Men/Fantastic Four film until next August.
