Simon Kinberg might be the current architect of the X-Men cinematic universe as a writer and producer, but the man has his fingers in multiple film franchises. He’s also the behind Star Wars: Rebels and was said to have a creative hand with Star Wars: Rogue One, making him apart of the Disney family which includes Marvel Studios.
While speaking with Crave Online to promote the home release of Deadpool, Simon and director Tim Miller talked about a potential crossover with Marvel Studios.
“I think we all would, and I think there’s so much crossover in the comic it would be neat to one day see those characters share a movie. It would be fun to all team up [Fox and Marvel] one day, somehow, together, if that would work.”
“Both of us are actually quite close with Kevin,“ Simon Kinberg says, “and have a profound amount of respect for what he does. And it would be fun to all team up one day, somehow, together, if that could work.”
Kinberg is also producing three X-Men television series that sees FXX teaming-up with producing partner Marvel Television, a move that had us extremely excited could mend relationships between the two studios. It’s promising that Legion and Hellfire could be that olive-branch.
Tim Miller isn’t a stranger to Marvel Studios either, as he did direct the opening sequence to Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World and was hired by Kevin Feige. There’s even a nod to Kevin in Deadpool with the pizza company being named Feige’s Famous Pizza, obviously the two still share a good relationship.
“But I would love to, someday, in part, heal the rift between the world of X-Men and the world of Avengers,“ Tim Miller added.
It’s hard to imagine that after Miller delivered a brand establishing film like Deadpool that Marvel would be anything but grateful, as the merchandise sales must be through the roof at the moment. Turning a thought to be risky character into a cinematic juggernaut that is able to hold his own in the box office arena with other superheroes is something of a miracle.
I don’t think there would be much objection to seeing Tim Miller possibly direct a crossover like that, if it ever happened.
Tim Miller, Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds along with writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese are now the cool-kids at Fox and I’m sure if they approached the studio with a pitch they’d strongly consider reaching out to Marvel with Simon Kinberg being their go-between. The only thing is that at the moment things like Deadpool 2 and X-Force are like more of a priority to them.
I get the impression that adding more X-Men characters to something like Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 might be more in the cards.
Kevin Feige has always been open to the idea, confirming that they always have different script options in the works just in case certain characters are welcomed back into the fold. Spider-Man was one of the those characters as he featured in their Civil War plans even before the deal with Sony was finalized.
Another friend of Kevin’s X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner has been open to the idea for years.
Yesterday, we saw something that I don’t think anyone could have predicted a couple years ago. Sony Pictures promoted a Marvel Studios film at CinemaCon in Vegas, as they announced their co-production Spider-Man: Homecoming with star Tom Holland and showed Spidey footage from Captain America: Civil War. Only hours before this Holland had been walking the red carpet at the Civil War premiere in Hollywood.
Imagine how much more successful the X-Men films could be with the Marvel Studios promotional and creative bump, we have yet to see an X-Men film cross the $800 million. Seemingly odd, since how the X-Men universe sparked the interest of the general audience to see Marvel movies they’d be doing a lot better.
Logistically, it’s an impossible idea. I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’ll see a complete rights handover, but a co-production deal like they’re doing with Sony isn’t hard to see eventually happen. Depending on how successful Civil War becomes, I think Fox might rethink their positions on this.
Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are already in the MCU, and they could add more X-Men into that world with new actors. To do this they might have to exclude the Singer-side of the franchise, but the Miller-verse might be open season. It would a be tricky balancing act for sure, but it’s still possible.
Deadpool might be that entry point into that new era of X-Men, where something like an Avengers vs X-Men crossover could take place. The benefit of not having established Singer-verse characters in the film opens the door for these characters to possibly co-exist within the MCU. They straight-up rebooted Colossus and if the X-Men are more known for covert operations like in the comics, the mutants might have kept under the radar of the public even during the events of Avengers and Civil War.
Making Deadpool set in a smaller world gives him an advantage that he could be unknown to the Avengers, it also should be noted that pretty much everything else around Wade could be considered as grounded or serious as anything else in the MCU. The film already feels like a reboot within a franchise of reboots, so connecting it to the MCU wouldn’t be terribly difficult.
Here are three X-Men characters that could be ripe for an MCU reboot ala Spider-Man.
Wolverine has existing comic connections to Captain America, Avengers, Nick Fury, SHIELD and Hydra making him the best standout to join something like one of the Infinity War movies. Hugh Jackman is retiring the character and could be a high-profile X-Men character that could be perfect for a crossover via a new actor placed into the MCU. He’s already championing Tom Hardy to replace him in the role.
Don’t forget his first introduction was in a Hulk comic book not an X-Men one.
Beast is another mutant I think a lot of people either don’t know about or have forgotten has connections to the Avengers. His shaggy blue fur look originated from his time as a full member of the Avengers, he also had his own solo comics before again rejoining the X-Men. It sounds like actor Nicholas Hoult might be done with the movies, so in theory he could get rebooted with a new actor like Wolverine.
Storm would make an excellent supporting hero in the Black Panther films due to her connections to T’Challa and would make a badass Avenger herself. I’m not entirely sure they would want to reboot her only because Alexandra Shipp has been linked to return in New Mutants.
A Fox and Marvel co-production could event lead to an event crossover film that featured the Skrull Invasion or even cosmic set Phoenix Saga. I don’t think automatically it would have to be Avengers vs X-Men, as it might seem too close to Civil War.
Fans are totally on board for this cohesive Marvel cinematic universe even more so when Marvel Studios is behind it, as they totally get the concept of a crossover. Having Hugh Jackman and also potentially Bryan Singer exiting the franchise soon, this allows producers and Fox to really put everything under one massive Marvel umbrella just like the world within the comics.
SOURCE: CRAVE ONLINE