2016's Deadpool was more than just a faithful adaptation of the Merc with the Mouth years after X-Men Origins: Wolverine butchered Wade Wilson. It also opened the door to darker corners of the X-Men universe, specifically X-Force, the militant team of mutants. Over the last year, there's been talk about an X-Force movie eventually making its way to the big screen, and now it looks like the project has taken its biggest step forward, as State of Affairs' Joe Carnahan has been brought aboard as a writer.
Collider dropped the news that Joe Carnahan will pen the X-Force script, while Comicbook.com is saying that Ryan Reynolds, a.k.a. Deadpool himself, will assist him with the writing. Now here's where things get confusing. Comicbook.com is reporting that Carnahan has also been tapped to direct the blockbuster, while Collider is saying that for now, he's only on writing duties, though that could change. Either way, it's clear he'll have a major voice with X-Force.
Although Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick have been the prime go-to people when it comes to the X-Force movie, evidently we can now look to Joe Carnahan and Ryan Reynolds as the men who will creatively guide the blockbuster. Carnahan's credits, both writing and directorial, include State of Affairs, Smokin' Aces, The A-Team (the movie) and The Grey. Along with Deadpool 2, he is also working on Bad Boys for Life and an American remake of The Raid. His experience with action fare makes him more than qualified to tackle the gritty X-Force, be it only as a writer or possibly directing, too.
Deadpool's success opened the door for 20th Century Fox to go more mature with their X-Men content. It's why Logan is rated R, and it's why it's now easier to introduce the X-Force into this cinematic universe, as opposed to if the main X-Men series had tried to accomplish that. Introduced in the early 1990s, the X-Force is comprised of mutant heroes and anti-heroes from around the Marvel universe, but they're methods are more extreme than the regular X-Men teams. X-Force goes on black-ops missions and is more aggressive with dealing with its enemies, namely killing. While no plot details for the X-Force movie have been revealed yet, Deadpool 2 is expected to be integral with setting up the team through the introductions of Cable and Domino, two X-Force mainstays from the comics. It's also possible the Merc with the Mouth might show up, given that he's a member in the comics. If that's the case, we'll presumably see him in his gray outfit rather than his traditional red duds.
The X-Force movie still doesn't have a release date attached, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates as they come in.
