We recently learned that X-Force was somewhat dead-in-the-water from comic book writer, and artist, Rob Liefeld. Revealing, that the script penned by Kick-Ass 2‘s Jeff Wadlow was made useless after Fox green lit X-Men: Apocalypse. Wadlow’s lineup included Cable, Warpath, Domino, Canonball, and a mystery female character.
Wadlow had exited the development process a while back, to focus on Masters of The Universe for Sony, but would ultimately get replaced and his script rewritten. It’s unlikely that they’ll be asking Jeff to come back to rework the project, as the studio tends to like to get fresh writers when they do a major overhaul that is needed with the film.
So, what should Fox do with a project that needs this much reworking?
Already there have been rumblings that Fox is strongly considering to quickly move forward with a sequel to Deadpool, and I could see them trying resurrect X-Force by possibly making it a quasi second film. Whether or not there’s actually connections to X-Force in the final film is unknown to me, not having seen it, but Deadpool has been a recent member of that team. We’ve also heard that Rob Liefeld was pushing that he’d be apart of the X-Force movie. Crossover talk has been circling from producers as well, and it might be hard to place Deadpool in the 80’s setting of the main movies.
There have been a couple of screenings of the film ahead of it’s release next week. Overwhelming, the reactions are extremely positive and this could be great news for Fox, and the Deadpool team. It almost didn’t get made, and it’s tracking like it could easily earn back it’s reported $50 million budget from the domestic opening weekend. Some calling it an extremely fresh take on the superhero genre, and could have a huge impact on future X-Men films.
It’s starting to sound like if Deadpool is a big enough hit, he very well could be the next mutant character Fox puts it’s energy into.
Director Tim Miller has already mentioned a desire to include X-Force members Cable and Laura Kinney aka X-23 in the sequel, adding a couple more members and calling it X-Force wouldn’t be a terrible thing. Originally, Wadlow seemed to have been locked into five characters for the film. That doesn’t need to be the case, as we’ve seen larger incarnations of the team, and it could help to add some more fan-favorites to the lineup. Even ones like Warpath and Psylocke, who already have joined the franchise and are worth including.
I do feel like if Fox doesn’t move quickly and offer Miller another X-Men film, he’s going to get a major offer from another studio to make a another film. He’s stuck around long enough, and fought hard for the film to get made, so there’s a investment with seeing more films getting made.
Some of that passion was front-and-centre in this new IMAX spot for the film.
Writing duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) have been involved with the project for six and half years, and seemingly have nailed the character from reactions to the early screenings. I think they’d be perfect to overhaul X-Force, and rewrite the script, allowing it to become a Deadpool sequel.
I asked Rhett on Twitter if he’d be up for writing X-Force, check out his response.
@_ChristopherM we are not crazy, so yes!
— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) February 4, 2016
In my opinion, it might be in the best interest of Fox and producers to have the pair come on as franchise writers, not unlike Marvel Studio has with Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus writing Captain America films and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War. Having more of master plan with these films, and people to spearhead creatively besides Singer and Simon Kinberg.
Making it the Deadpool sequel will also ensure X-Force lands an R-rating, which fans have been asking for since the modern teams have been slightly more mature than other X-Men offshoots.
Do you think the Deadpool creative team should turn X-Force into a sequel?