Sound the alarm! Someone has let Mark Millar near all-important movie franchises! All joking aside, it’s true – the man behind Wanted, **Kick-As****s **and his own comics’ empire (not to mention writing some great modern Marvel titles) has made a deal with 20th Century Fox to become a creative consultant on their Marvel output for the next few years.
Effectively this will mean Millar playing a similar role to Joss Whedon’s godfather-like responsibilities at Marvel itself – working with directors on projects involving the company's characters. Which also points to Fox trying to tie them together a little more solidly, spurred, no doubt by the success of Marvel’s Phase One films.
Millar, unsurprisingly, seems happy to have been handed the chance to help guide the future of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Wolverine and more. "I really like the Fox team, love this bold new direction they have for their franchises and am proud to be working alongside some of modern cinema's biggest talents," Millar said in a statement picked up by the Hollywood Reporter. "James Mangold is incredible, Matthew Vaughn's one of my closest pals, and Josh Trank gave us, in my opinion, one of the greatest superhero movies of the last decade with Chronicle. The invitation to join this crew was maybe the coolest phone call I've ever had.”
“As someone who has spent his entire life obsessed with both comic books and movies, this is essentially my dream gig as it's a unique combination of both,” he adds. “I spent ten years working at Marvel and am really happy with the work I did on the comic side of things, so the idea of working with these characters now in a brand new medium is enormously exciting for me."
Given his close working relationship with Matthew Vaughn, he’ll be involved with First Class sequel X-Men: Days Of Future Past and several projects still in the works, including the reboot of the **Fantastic Four **series with Trank directing.
Is MM aiming to prove that he can be involved with just as many projects as Guillermo del Toro? Possibly, but we wish him all the best in his new endeavour...