It’s the end of an era in the superhero movie genre, as after decades of the X-Men and Fantastic Four’s film rights being owned by 20th Century Fox, those properties are now under the Marvel Studios banner following Disney’s acquisition of Fox. However, it was recently revealed that earlier this decade when Fox was years away from being owned by the Mouse House, it was considering making a movie that saw the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool and Daredevil crossing paths, and now plot details for this massive project have emerged.
Thor and X-Men: First Class co-writer Zack Stentz made fans aware last week that he’d written a movie that would have seen many of the then-Fox-owned Marvel heroes coming together that Paul Greengrass was being lined up to direct. Per the “secret sources” who spoke with THR, Fox specifically put this project into motion in 2010, and it would have seen the X-Men and Fantastic Four in an epic battle similar to what the MCU heroes went through in Captain America: Civil War.
Apparently while trying to apprehend Molecule Man, a longtime Fantastic Four villain from the comics, Johnny Storm, a.k.a. The Human Torch, would have gone supernova and blown a hole in Manhattan. A superhero registration act is then passed in the aftermath of the tragedy.
From there, just like in Captain America: Civil War, the heroes are split onto opposing fights, and one the main clashes would have been Wolverine vs. Mr. Fantastic. That fight would have ended with Reed Richards pinning Logan down, stretching his hands until they were one molecule wide and then using them like scissors to cut the clawed mutant’s arms off. Even though Wolverine’s arms would grow back thanks to his healing factor, that is really brutal, especially for a hero like Mr. Fantastic.
This movie would end with the heroes would have made peace, but a post-credits scene, as they’re known to do, would tease an even bigger threat: a Skrull invasion. There’s no mention of how Deadpool or Daredevil would have fit into the story, so I’m guessing they would have been minor players at best.
As for why this X-Men vs. Fantastic Four movie never moved forward, following the success of X-Men: First Class, Fox decided it was a better to keep the main X-Men film series going, and X-Men: Days of Future Past followed in 2014. This also wasn’t the only X-Men vs. Fantastic Four movie idea in circulation at Fox, as Fox commissioned a separate treatment from comic book writer Warren Ellis.
At the time Fox was considering having the X-Men and Fantastic Four collide, The Avengers was still two years away, and superheroes throwing down against each another wouldn’t be the hot thing for another four years after that with Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. So had Fox moved forward with this ambitious idea, it would been ahead of the curve.
Alas, that was a long time ago, and while the X-Men and Fantastic Four could still cross paths, because these properties are expected to be rebooted within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s not as though they can only cross over with each other. They’re now part of a much larger world filled with characters like Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and that opens the door for crossovers akin to what the mutants and Marvel’s First Family have been involved in countless times in the comics.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest updates concerning the X-Men and Fantastic Four. The main X-Men film series is concluding with Dark Phoenix, now playing in theaters.
