Last year, Deadpool 2 finally brought the X-Force to the big screen with the introduction of characters like Cable and Domino, and from there the plan was to spotlight the militaristic team of mutants in their own movie, which has been in development since 2013. However, there hasn't been any major updates on the X-Force movie in a while, and Rob Liefeld, co-creator of both Deadpool and X-Force, believes the project is now dead as a result of the 20th Century Fox-Disney merger. In his words:
Pour one out for ol' X-Force. Victim of the merger. $800 million grosser easy.
Rob Liefeld's comment was in response to a rumor shared by Daniel Richtman on Twitter, which claimed that although X-Force, unlike all the other Marvel movies in development at Fox, isn't technically considered "dead," it might as well be since filming would supposedly need to begin in the next two months, and that's not happening. Evidently Liefeld believes this information is accurate and blames it on Fox soon being absorbed into Disney, meaning Marvel Studios will finally be able to use the X-Men and Fantastic Four properties.
Since the plan is for these heroes and villains to eventually be introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's to be expected that Marvel will want to develop its own X-Men projects rather than stick with what Fox was working on, hence why it's not surprising to hear that X-Force could be among the casualties. However, for now, X-Force's cancellation remains officially unconfirmed. It's also possible that the X-Force could be retooled to fit within the MCU, especially if Ryan Reynolds is kept around as Deadpool. After all, it'd be easy enough for the Merc with the Mouth to transition from the Fox-verse to the MCU thanks to his penchant for breaking the fourth wall.
When the X-Force movie was first announced, Truth or Dare's Jeff Wadlow was hired to write and direct the project, but because 20th Century Fox prioritized making Deadpool, Wadlow's version of X-Force never moved forward. In February 2017, The Grey's Joe Carnahan signed on to direct and co-write X-Force, but more than half a year later, The Cabin in the Woods' Drew Goddard replaced Carnahan. Goddard said last summer that he was waiting to finish Bad Times at the El Royale before working on X-Force, but that movie came out last October. So even if Goddard is writing the X-Force script now, time is not on his side with the Fox-Disney merger looming.
As things stand now, there are two more Fox-era X-Men projects definitely hitting theaters. Dark Phoenix arrives in June and aims to deliver a better adaptation of The Dark Phoenix Saga comic book storyline, and The New Mutants (which was originally supposed to be released in April 2017) will follow in August and show five young mutants being trapped in a secret facility.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for any updates concerning X-Force and the rest of the X-Men franchise. For now, look through our 2019 release schedule to see what other movies come out this year.
