This year will mark a transition point for 20th Century Fox's stewardship of the X-Men characters. With Disney taking over Fox's assets, the Marvel team will now be in control of the mutants and their various associates. According to producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has been with the X-franchise since the beginning, all questions about the heroes' future on the big screen are up in the air as Marvel boss Kevin Feige figures out how to move forward with them as part of the MCU.
“Kevin and I started the first movie, he worked for me, he has a great story sense when it comes to weaving each world together, I trust him and I trust where he will take it,” said Shuler Donner, before admitting that she doesn't have the inside track when it comes to the future. "I don’t know what Kevin is thinking, I think he’s still dealing with the wealth of characters and trying to make sense of it all."
Speaking at a panel as part of the Television Critics Association winter press tour for Legion (which will wrap up with its third season this year), Shuler Donner was candid when asked about the likelihood that spin-offs such as Gambit still chugging away in development might see the light of day. "That is up to Disney. That really is up to Disney. I hope so, but that’s up to them. The problem is you can’t have too many Marvel, X-Men superhero movies out there because we will cancel each other out. Each one has to be distinctive and yet you’ve got The Avengers to follow through. You’ve got so many distinctive story canons to follow through and yet we want new ones, but I don’t think you can have more than four. Four is a lot because people are going to get sick of them so we have to be careful. He has to be careful."
She did appear to confirm what we'd all assumed after Hugh Jackman essentially used Logan as a way to wrap up his time as Wolverine, with the producer saying she expects Feige and co. to start looking for a new actor to fill that role. Good luck!
Finally, she addressed one of the thornier issues going forward; the fate of The New Mutants. The film, which aims to bring a touch of horror to the X-universe, has undergone some big re-shoots and constantly seems to be in a state of flux. There has even been chatter about it potentially being shuffled off from a cinematic slot to a streaming service such as Hulu. "They worked hard on it,” said Shuler Donner about the film’s production team, "I want to see it released theatrically, I’d hate to see it thrown at Hulu."
For now, we do know that the X-team will be back with Dark Phoenix on 7 June, with The New Mutants still currently on the schedule for 2 August.
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