At one time, long ago, in a galaxy a lot like this one, 20th Century Fox were planning a huge cinematic comic book event akin to Civil War that would have brought together all their Marvel properties including The X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Deadpool. Back in 2019, X-Men: First Class screenwriter Zack Stentz revealed a few scant details about the project, claiming that Jason Bourne director Paul Greengrass would have been at the helm. Well, while he does not give away any further details, Greengrass has now confirmed that this was indeed the plan.
“They did talk to me about it. I wouldn’t say I was attached. [We] talked, and I thought about it, and in the end…”
The proposed X-Men vs. Fantastic Four vs. Everyone else movie would have been a very ambitious crossover. The movie would have been penned by Stenz and Ashley Edward Miller, and would have borrowed from the premise of Marvel’s Civil War comic book arc (which was later loosely adapted for the MCU) by having the heroes split into two sides after Johnny Storm goes nova and decimates Manhattan while trying to apprehend Molecule Man.
Sadly, the project that once wanted Paul Greengrass clearly never made it to the big screen, with director Matthew Vaughn’s prequel, X-Men: First Class, which details the early years of mutant leaders Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr AKA Magneto and the origin of their respective groups the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, thought to be a factor in the studio’s decision not to move forward.
Of course, cinematic comic book crossovers are now all the rage, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe finding huge success as they corner the market across both the big and small screens with their ongoing franchise.
While we never saw 20th Century Fox’s plan come to fruition, it is only a matter of time before all of the characters mentioned in their plan share the screen, with the likes of The X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool now all under the Disney umbrella. Since the studio giant purchased the rights to oh-so-many Fox studios properties, Marvel fans have been waiting patiently to find what they have in store for these beloved characters.
So far, projects revolving around several of the respective properties have been announced, with Deadpool 3 being confirmed last November. The Merc with a Mouth will return in the form of Ryan Reynolds, who is all set to once again reprise the role of the Marvel anti-hero. Meetings reportedly took place in the latter part of last year, with Reynolds hearing an assortment of pitches from a variety of talented scribes, before finally settling on Bob’s Burgers duo Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Loeglin to pen the highly anticipated Deadpool threequel.
The recent Disney Investor Day event finally revealed plans for a Fantastic Four reboot, confirming that Spider-Man: Far from Home director Jon Watts is on board to helm the movie, which will bring Marvel’s super-powered family into the MCU. Currently there is no word on what Marvel Studios plans to do with X-Men and Daredevil, but with so many projects in the pipeline, there is ample opportunity to one day bring them all together. This comes to us courtesy of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.