Comic book movies are arguably the most popular genre in the film industry, with plenty of studios creating their own cinematic universes in an attempt at box office supremacy. But that also means that plenty of projects have fallen to the wayside over the years, especially 20th Century Fox's various mutant-centric movies that never came to fruition. Prior to Deadpool's release, Fox began development on an X-Force movie, written by Kick Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow. And now he's revealed his three-movie plan for the comic book team.
The X-Force are another team of mutants, often featuring former members of the X-Men. While they made a hilarious ill-fated debut in Deadpool 2, Fox originally was going to bring the X-Force to theaters in their own project. Jeff Wadlow recently explained his big picture plans for a trilogy, and it's definitely going to inspire a big reaction from hardcore comic fans. As he recently put it,
What I can share about my take on the property (as it's not really relevant any more since Deadpool 2 introduced Cable, and I wrote X-Force before Deadpool 1 even came out), is that it asked if X-Men was about mutants who get to go to private school with Wolverine and Professor X, and have the Blackbird swooping down to pick them up, what about the mutants that have to go to public school? What about the ones who don't have the benefactor looking out for them, and what about the kids who have to figure it out on their own? We then would have introduced that darker, more militant mentor in the form of Cable.
Well, this is a great jumping off point. It sounds like Jeff Wadlow was going to bring something very different to the X-Men franchise with his version of X-Force. And he was approaching the story from a human perspective, allowing the cast's background to inform their juxtaposition with Xavier's famous team of heroes.
It looks like 20th Century Fox's X-Force would have taken the team much more seriously than Deadpool 2. Cable's hardcore leadership would obviously contribute to this, but it's also interesting to see how class would factor into the story. These mutants don't live in a fancy boarding school, and are forced to come to terms with discrimination and their abilities on their own. This would result in a very different type of hero, with more brutality than Xavier's best.
Later in his conversation with Comic Book Movie, Jeff Wadlow shared his plans for a three-movie arc, saying:
I plotted out this three-movie arc that took X-Force from what it was in the 90s with Rob Liefeld with a band of kids fighting for what they believe in. And then by the third film, the group would have grown and changed and lost and picked up some new members, and basically turned into Rick Remender's version of the X-Force in the early 2000s. That was a much darker hit squad and black ops team who had lost their way over the course of the three films.
This comment is sure to send some serious FOMO through comic book lovers' hearts. Because Jeff Wadlow's X-Force trilogy would be a love letter to the team's life on the comics, with inspiration taken from a few different artists/writers. It shows how much the writer is truly a fan of the team's journey on the page, and is definitely an intriguing concept. Unfortunately, his X-Force never saw the light of day.
It should be interesting to see if/how the X-Force is used on the big screen. Since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, there's been no details about the future of the Deadpool or X-Force franchises. Wade Wilson was originally going to assemble a new version of the team, but there haven't been any updates since the acquisition. So we'll just have to wait and see what comes next mutants on the big screen.
The X-Men franchise as we know it will end when The New Mutants (finally) hits theaters on April 3rd. In the meantime, check out our 2020 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
