X-Men Producer Confirms Some Fox Marvel Projects Are On Hold

Longtime X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner confirmed that while some of Fox’s planned Marvel projects are indeed on hold, she hopes to see the franchise as a whole evolve under new management whenever the Disney acquisition is complete.

Speaking with Collider, Donner stated that projects like X-Force and the Gambit film are indeed on hold. While she was not as hands-on as Simon Kinberg was for projects such as New Mutants and Apocalypse, Donner has remained a focal point of the X-Men franchise dating back to the first film in 2000. Here’s what she had to say about the state of some of the Fox X-Men projects:

“Everything is on hold, since Disney took over. I, frankly, took a step back after Deadpool, so I wasn’t front and center, at all, for Apocalypse or New Mutants or Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix. He took over, but these were things that I put in place. With Gambit, certainly, it’s too bad that it’s taking so long because I really wanted to see that. It’s such a great character. But, let’s see. Let’s hope so. Right now, it’s all in Disney’s hands. We don’t know what they’re gonna do. Now, it goes to Kevin Feige, who was my protégé. He and I started X-Men together, so I do trust him, not only based on knowing him and knowing how he knows the story so well, but on pure evidence.”

While the X-Men films under Fox have had a very different tone and feel compared to what’s done over at Marvel Studios, Donner also stated that she hopes to see the franchise head in a different direction under Disney:

“I want it to go in a different direction, very much. I think we’ve played that out and it needs to evolve. I don’t know. There are lots of stories. There are some great stories to do, especially with Cable and with X-Force. I’d love to see it. I really would. But, I don’t know.”

It is quite interesting, and a bit unfortunate, that the acquisition has happened when it did. At the point when Fox got experimental with X-Men projects such as Legion, Deadpool, Logan, The Gifted, and was looking to continue on that path with films like X-Force, James Franco’s Multiple Man project, Gambit, and so on, but then the Disney acquisition occurred. Even that seems to be up in the air, given how often it has been pushed back.

Ultimately, though, in the meantime we still have the likes of Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants on the horizon. With Legion concluding this season according to how Noah Hawley wanted it, the X-Men series seems to be winding down under the leadership of 20th Century Fox. How the franchise and mutants as a whole will go on under Marvel Studios when they’re no doubt brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is anyone’s guess, but let us know your thoughts on the neverending story of Disney, Fox, and the X-Men in the comments below.

Dark Phoenix will be released on June 7, 2019. The New Mutants will arrive in theaters not long after on August 2, 2019.

Source: Collider