Fox has some big plans to expand their own version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The X-Men franchise is expanding in a big way next year, with three different titles set to be released, and this summer will see what the studio hopes is the launch of a brand new Fantastic Four series. The success of all these films will wind up determining what the future will hold, but if all goes according to plan - says a new report - then we can possibly expect an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover movie to land in the summer of 2018.
Latino-Review is reporting that while the next few years are a bit unclear for Fox when it comes to their Marvel movies, there is hope that the next couple years will allow them to follow the Marvel Studios and Warner Bros./DC move of creating a shared universe. Of course, the idea of a X-Men/Fantastic Four isn't anything new, and has been brought up many times before, but this would create an interesting timetable for the comic book films.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, though, there are some things that need to go well before a future with an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover film can become a reality. Namely, the upcoming Fantastic Four movie from director Josh Trank has to be a success in some regard - either at the box office or with critics (enough positive buzz could spur the studio to still have faith in the idea of a Fantastic Four franchise). Right now, Fox has a Fantastic Four 2 penciled in for June 9, 2017, but that project currently sits in the same state of purgatory as the potential crossover.
So how would an X-Men/Fantastic Four movie actually work? It's worth pointing out that the rebooted Fantastic Four isn't set in the same world as the X-Men titles, as Simon Kinberg has said that they live in "discrete universes." With the help of comic book science, and the fact that the Fantastic Four feature will explore parallel dimensions, however, this isn't a big deal. A crossover could easily begin with Toby Kebbell's Doctor Doom discovering the existence of the universe with the X-Men and trying to conquer it. In order to stop him, Miles Teller's Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara's The Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan's Human Torch, and Jamie Bell's The Thing must team up with Professor Xavier's mutants. Any variation on that would work just fine.
Right now, Fox's Marvel slate beyond this year includes Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, Gambit, The Wolverine sequel, New Mutants and The Fantastic Four 2, but it will be interesting to see how the landscape changes after The Fantastic Four is released this August. The idea of an X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover is certainly an exciting one, and we'll keep you updated with its development.
