While X-Force is starting to look like a priority for 20th Century Fox, who will direct it seems a little murky at this point. It’s expected that Ryan Reynolds will be back as Deadpool alongside the actors who will land the roles of Cable and Domino.
Here is a rundown of potential candidates.
Collider reports that Joe Carnahan has been tasked to rewrite the X-Force script. After Jeff Wadlow‘s version had to be trashed due to similarities to X-Men: Apocalypse. It’s unlikely now that the project has become a priority and high-profile that Jeff will be asked to return.
As of now, Carnahan is only writing the script for X-Force and is not currently attached to direct, but should Fox be a fan of the script (and if one of his clones has time in their schedule), he certainly has the experience to back a directorial gig.
Joe has been doing a lot of script work lately with completing the Uncharted script for director Shawn Levy. He also is writing and directing projects like Bad Boys For Life and recently announced his intentions to tackle The Raid remake starring Frank Grillo.
Basically, Joe is a busy bee and could be just handling the script side of things.
Another candidate brought into the light by Collider is Cabin In The Woods director Drew Goddard, who is a script consultant on Deadpool 2. Drew has also been involved with projects like the Daredevil series and Fox’s big hit The Martian. Not to mention, Sony’s Sinister Six which eventually had it’s plug pulled by the Marvel Studios Spider-Man reboot. He was also rumored to be considered for that Spidey job as well.
Like Joe, he could be just hired for his screenwriting skills but it’s also possible he could be considered for the director gig.
Before John Wick and Atomic Blonde‘s David Leitch was hired for Deadpool 2, he along with Ghost In The Shell‘s Rupert Sanders were reportedly being courted to direct X-Force according to The Hollywood Reporter. Either of these action directors could circle back to the project.
Sanders also made this impressive live-action trailer for Halo III: ODST which gives some serious X-Force vibes.
Then again, Leitch might be asked to return for Deadpool 3 which is also in development as well.
Fox will likely have three X-Men movies in production within the next couple of months. This gives the impression that the studio could be moving forward sooner than expected on both X-Force and Deadpool 3.
It remains to be seen if Deadpool 3 and X-Force will be the same film as fan speculation suggests, as they’ve been previously reported as two separate projects by THR.
And in a sign of how much faith it has in the Reynolds-starring franchise, Fox already is planning Deadpool 3, readying a filmmaker search for a storyline that will involve another X-team, X-Force, say sources.