There’s a good chance we’re going to get another X-Men film in the near future, no matter what rumors are swirling about the franchise. It’s a proven box-office success for Fox, even if the critical successes are a little more spread out. Logan is about to hit theaters and rumors were already swirling about a mystery post-credits scene that might tie into another film — minus Hugh Jackman, obviously. But there’s another rumor for the series involving long-running X-Men movie force Simon Kinberg.
Kinberg reportedly tried to help salvage Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four for Fox but hasn’t officially sat in the director’s chair for is own film yet. That could change with the next X-Men film according to Collider, with the mutants getting a second chance to take on a classic storyline:
After talking to multiple sources, I can report that writer/producer Simon Kinberg is looking to make his directorial debut with the next X-Men movie and he’s already written the screenplay. From what I hear, it does focus on the Dark Phoenix storyline and it’s now up to the studio if they’ll use his script and if he’ll get to direct it. At this point, I don’t have any information about casting beyond Sophie Turner.
We got a taste of Phoenix in the climax of Apocalypse, but the last time the film series attempted to address the iconic storyline was X-Men: The Last Stand. The results were not pleasing, but with Bryan Singer stepping away from the series, Kinberg has the resume to support the rumors according to The Hollywood Reporter:
Kinberg has been involved with the X-Men series in a writer and/or producer capacity since 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, and has become one of the most important players in the X-Men cinematic universe, having his hands in the main X-Men line, nascent spinoff franchise Deadpool, the new (and last for Hugh Jackman) Wolverine movie, Logan, and even TV projects such as Legion.
Kinberg wrote the script for the new X-Men movie, which is to follow-up 2016’s fan-drubbed but money-making X-Men: Apocalypse. Rumblings of him taking over began surfacing last year, but the script was still being worked on.
The rave reviews for Logan are a pleasant sight for fans and Legion is also giving the franchise some critical juice on television. Maybe it will translate into a better film than X-Men: Apocalypse. While it wasn’t terrible, it was tedious to get through. With plenty of time to make the next one, maybe the studio can learn from the mistakes or at least balance out the profits with something satisfying on the screen.
(Via Collider / The Hollywood Reporter)