X-Men was the movie that kicked off the comic book movie boom that has been building for nearly twenty years. While Blade had proven that a movie based on a Marvel property could be a success, X-Men took one of the most popular titles within the company and turned it into a massive summer blockbuster.
Nobody thought it was going to work, as the studio had no faith in it and didn’t even test screen it, but viewers wound up loving it.
Over the past eighteen years, fans have been treated to eleven movies set within that universe. Even though the films eventually went for a younger cast with a prequel and then reset the timeline to allow themselves more freedom in Days of Future Past, the on-screen X-Men universe has still never rebooted.
Even now, with the Fox/Disney merger having become a reality that is fast approaching, there are tons of X-Men film and TV projects in development. Some are clear and concrete realities that everybody knows are coming, while others have yet to make it out of the rumor mill.
While some of these projects look more enticing than others, all of them have the potential to be truly special if executed correctly.
After all, the X-Men characters make up roughly half of the Marvel universe, and as exciting as it is to see all of Marvel under one roof, these characters could probably have kept going on their own forever.
With that said, here are the 10 X-Men Projects Currently In Development (And 10 That Are Rumored).
16. In Development: 143
So far, 143 might be the most intriguing movie on Fox’s X-Men slate. It is definitely in development, being written by legendary comics writer Brian Michael Bendis and potentially directed by Tim Miller.
It has no name yet, but it is almost certain to be a Kitty Pryde movie - or at least a film that will feature her as a prominent character.
No details other than those have been revealed. Nonetheless, this is exciting for numerous reasons.
It would be Tim Miller’s first X-Men universe movie since leaving Deadpool 2 and would be Bendis’s first reunion with the character since leaving Marvel to write for DC.
Most importantly, it would be the first female-driven X-Men movie to date.
19. Rumored: Avengers vs. X-Men
It’s no surprise that this has been rumored for so long, even if there’s probably no foundation to it whatsoever.
People are still wired to think of crossovers in of versus movies because that was the only way Hollywood handled crossovers for so long - from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man to Freddy vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, and even Batman v Superman.
It’s still natural to think that if two things are going to combine together, they are going to fight.
With X-Men: Dark Phoenix on the horizon, it’s unlikely that the first MCU appearance of the X-Men would take any cues from the Avengers vs. X-Men comics given that that series also revolved around the Phoenix as the driving force behind the fight between the two teams.
18. In Development: X-23
Fans were blown away by the appearance of young Laura in Logan. Even though the movie marked a definite ending for the character of Wolverine, there was a possibility that she could go on to potentially launch her own franchise, and after the massive success of Logan, that became almost an inevitability.
Logan director James Mangold has even teased the possibility of returning to direct the movie himself.
At the very least, there is a script at this point. Some semblance of work on this project has begun, though it’s unclear when fans might ever actually see it.
Even though X-23 is in development, it has yet to make it on Fox’s ever-shifting slate of Marvel projects.
15. Rumored: Deadpool Animated
It has been made abundantly clear that following some sort of creative differences, Donald Glover’s animated Deadpool series will not be moving ahead.
FX doesn’t want it and they don’t plan to hire anyone else to produce that particular show.
Despite this, though, the head of FX noted that Marvel retained the TV rights to the property and said that he fully expects them to make their own animated Deadpool series.
This is almost a no-brainer considering Deadpool’s enormous popularity.
There’s no way of knowing when or even if people will eventually see a new Deadpool animated series, but it might depend on the success of DC Universe’s similarly themed animated Harley Quinn.
20. In Development: Multiple Man
The announcement of this movie completely took people by surprise with how unexpected it was.
It almost sounded like an April Fool’s joke, as it involved James Franco returning to comic book movies for a film based around a character that is not by any stretch a household name.
However, this movie definitely showcases how the X-Men universe is focusing more and more on standalone movies unrelated to the larger continuity following the success of Logan and Deadpool.
It’s understandable why an actor like Franco would be excited by a project like Multiple Man, though, considering how much range it would allow for to play so many duplicates of the same character.
There’s no telling if Franco is still interested or whether the movie will see completion, but it is in the works.
17. Rumored: An X-Men/Spider-Man Crossover
With Spider-Man still being a new addition to the MCU and having sort of teamed up with Iron Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming, so it’s no surprise that fans have started speculating that the wall-crawler might team up with the X-Men in a future MCU movie.
Unfounded as this probably is, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see once the Disney/Fox merger is completed, given that Spider-Man and the X-Men actually have a long history of teaming up in the comics.
There was also a 1990s crossover between their two animated series and a video game at the same time titled Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge.
This rumor spread like crazy when Sony made a bid for Fox as well.
There’s almost no way that this is actually in the cards, but if it could be pulled off, it would be an amazing treat for fans.
14. In Development: Deadpool 3
There’s been a surprising amount of back-and-forth on Deadpool 3, despite the success of both the character and the franchise.
Initially, Ryan Rynolds said that he wasn’t sure if the character would continue into a third solo movie, because he figured that the studio would just move ahead with X-Force instead.
While that feature is still in development, it looks like another Deadpool is in the works as well.
Reynolds has talked about it more openly lately, even noting that he would like to see Hugh Jackman’s return in the movie.
Reynolds clarified that he would respect Jackman’s decision to hang up the claws, and cameo in the movie as himself, not Wolverine.
13. Rumored: Hellfire
This TV series was in development for a brief time and almost seemed like a surefire thing. It was going to be set in the 1960s and depict the origins of the iconic Hellfire Club.
Part of what made this puzzling news is the fact that X-Men: First Class had already been set in the 1960s and prominently featured the Hellfire Club, which would have made for a very bizarre setting for the TV series.
Ultimately, the series didn’t wind up moving forward at the time.
There are still rumors that it might be dusted off at some point with a new show runner, given the success of both Legion and The Gifted.
However, it seems unlikely simply because The Gifted has started to involve the Hellfire Club moving into the second season and promises to feature the group fairly prominently moving forward.
4. In Development: The New Mutants
No matter what anyone has said at this point, The New Mutants is in development.
It has clearly suffered quite a bit behind the scenes. Many have said that the studio was nervous with the horror movie approach that the film had taken, as was evidenced by the trailer, so the movie is being reshot to be more in line with a traditional teen superhero film.
Others have said that the reshoots are meant to lean even heavier into the psychological horror elements promised by that first trailer.
The most puzzling thing remains just how close the movie was to coming out before the decision was made to pull it from the schedule.
The trailer had already been in regular theater rotation and the movie was weeks away from release when the decision was made — whatever the reasons may be — to pull it from the slate and reshoot the bulk of it.
11. Rumored: X-Men: Dark Phoenix Part 2
This is another rumor that seems almost impossibly unlikely, but it’s hard to say at this point.
After Dark Phoenix was announced, there were persistent rumors that the movie might be a two-parter. It made sense, as Avengers: Infinity War had already announced that plan as had Justice League.
Obviously, only Avengers made good on that promise.
There’s nothing in Dark Phoenix that seems like it would warrant a two-parter unless they had done X-Men: Phoenix and simply followed it with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but that clearly isn’t the case.
With so much of this movie focusing on Jean Grey and her dark turn, it’s hard to see where there would really be room to split the movie into two parts, if there’s even any remote truth to this rumor at all.
