Multiple reports over the past several weeks have strongly suggested that the Walt Disney Company is on the verge of acquiring all of 21st Century Fox's film and television assets, including 20th Century Fox and FOX TV, and while many over-eager fans have already begun prematurely celebrating the potential introduction of the X-Men to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's still actually incredibly unclear what exactly is going to happen to the franchise and to the rest of Fox's catalog if/when the deal closes.
Many are already assuming that the deal will result in a complete reboot of the long-running X-Men franchise, which has really started to hit its stride lately with the releases of Deadpool and Logan and has a very promising 2018 coming up with The New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix. However, we may have to pump the brakes on that reboot, at least for the time being with all three of those aforementioned films already in the bag (and not to mention, at least two or three more X-Universe films, including Gambit, X-Force, and maybe X-Men: Dark Phoenix - Part 2, expected to go into production at the top of next year), meaning it's probably unlikely that we'll see a complete reboot of the franchise unless, of course, Avengers: Infinity War or Dark Phoenix provides a reality-bending loophole that merges the universes a few months ahead of schedule. This would suggest that it's probably unwise to expect Earth's Mightiest Heroes crossing paths with Charles Xavier's X-Men until, at least, after the events of the still-untitled Avengers 4 in 2019. Phase 4 also remains a relative unknown, so introducing new characters from the X-Men and possibly the Fantastic Four would make a lot of sense then over shoehorning them in the Phase 3 finale, which is already slated to wrap principal photography within the next few weeks.
Anyways, while the X-Men will undoubtedly get sorted out, especially considering their popularity amongst Marvel fans, one of the bigger question marks surrounding the potenial acquisition has been about an X-Men adjacent character: Deadpool. What will happen to the Merc with a Mouth and his R-rated antics if the House of Mouse brings him home to Marvel Studios?
If we look back at Disney's history of acquisitions - Marvel in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012 - they've already established a pretty strong history of further developing the franchises they acquire rather than rebooting them. After their purchase of Marvel, they seamlessly continued the developing Marvel Cinematic Universe and decided against recasting Robert Downey Jr. after his breakout performance in Iron Man and then in 2015, they resurrected the Star Wars franchise while also returning all three of the original trilogy stars: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. With that kind of precedent, it could potentially bode well for a number of our favorite X-Men actors, including the Dark Phoenix cast and Ryan Reynolds, who is one star that almost everyone wants to see continue his portrayal of Wade Wilson for the foreseeable future.
Speaking of Reynolds, with the deal possibly imminent, he took to Twitter yesterday - shortly after Chris Evans did - to offer his own hilarious take on the potential game-changer and expressed excitment about his Deadpool finally getting a chance to cross paths with The Avengers the iconic Mickey Mouse. After publically questioning Deadpool's future under Disney in November, it would seem as though he's taken a considerably different tone with the deal now possibly less than a week away. Does this seemingly suggest that he expects to (and/or has heard something that implied he'll) remain on as Deadpool under the Disney banner or are we reading too much into it? Check out his tweet below:
Regardless, it should be an interesting couple of weeks as we wait for news on the acquisition and news about the future of the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and more.
So, what do you guys think? Sound off with your thoughts below!
Deadpool 2 is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is intended to be the twelfth installment in the X-Men film series, and a sequel to the 2016 film Deadpool.
Deadpool 2 features:
Director: David Leitch
Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool
Morena Baccarin as Vanessa
T.J. Miller as Weasel
Leslie Uggams as Blind Al
Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Stefan Kapičić as Colossus
Zazie Beetz as Neena Thurman/Domino
Josh Brolin as Nathan Summers/Cable
Jack Kesy as Black Tom Cassidy
Karan Soni as Dopinder
Shioli Kutsuna in an undisclosed role
Deadpool 2 slices and dices its way into theaters June 1
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