What happens when your star director takes off for a competing project and you’re left with a hotly-anticipated cliff hanger in the series? In the case of X-Men you hire director Brett Ratner and push a crappy movie out the door. After killing off the majority of x-men, a spin off might be enough to keep the franchise alive and feeling fresh. Of course two is better than one, and the execs at 20th Century Fox have stand-alone Wolverine and Magneto movies in the pipe for a 2008 and 2009 release respectively, reports the XMF News Blog.

“It’s really soon to tell,” said 20th Century Fox film entertainment chairman Tom Rothman in an email. “The most important thing is to get the movies right! If I had to guess, I’d say Wolvie in ‘08 and Mag in ‘09, but it could change.”

Of course, Rothman put a plug in for the upcoming Fantastic Four sequel. If Spider-Man 2 proved anything, it’s that comic book adapted movies are still hot. Given that the children of the 80s have grown into money-making adults and they haven’t out grown their fanboy personas, comic book movies will continue to dominate the cinema. Until the current generation grows up and starts making movies about MySpace and iTunes.