One of the weirdest side effects of the ‘Marvel-fication’ of Hollywood is how release dates work now. It used to be that a film was first an idea, then a script, then a finalized cut, and then it got a release date. Not so anymore. Nowadays everyone from Disney and Sony to Universal and Fox are staking out prime dates years ahead of time, often with no indication of what movie will be placed there. A superhero/shared universe real estate cold war, so to speak.
The latest salvo in this battle comes from 20th Century Fox. Right now, X-Men is the only franchise that’s working for the studio. The New Mutants comes out April 13, 2018 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix releases on November 2, 2018. Between the two of those, Fox is hoping lightning can strike twice for the Merc with the Mouth as Deadpool 2 drops on June 1, 2018. But three dates in one year isn’t exactly ambitious when Marvel has solid plans through 2020. So now Fox has announced six more dates through 2021 that they’re planting their metaphorical flags in.
The new claims are as follows: June 7, 2019, November 22, 2019, March 13, 2020, June 26 2020, October 2, 2020, and March 5, 2021. Right now Fox is playing coy about what films will go in these slots, most likely because they themselves don’t even know. However, an educated guess would say good money is on a New Mutants sequel, another major X-Men franchise installment, and something else involving Deadpool’s character. Fox also has to find a way to revive the Fantastic Four franchise or risk the rights reverting back to Marvel Studios. Still, that leaves two or three dates open for brand new franchise offerings. With Hugh Jackman hanging up his claws, perhaps Fox will find a way to make Storm or Mystique stand-alone origin stories?
We’ll have to wait until closer to 2019 to find out.
[Via Coming Soon]