If the trailer to Logan made things feel like they were ending, now it’s appropriate. Sources close to Fox are telling THR that the studio is considering restarting the X-Men franchise with new actors and a new storyline.
It wasn’t that long ago that Fox tinkered with the timeline to recast characters and retell the mutant story, but the box office numbers for X-Men Apocalypse tell them it isn’t working. There’s also the fact that Hugh Jackman is parting ways with Wolverine after Logan, never to return. The movie is, after all, about an aging Wolvie who’s getting too old for this; his point has been made.
And Jackman may not be alone in his retirement. Several of the actors who played major characters in Apocalypse may not reprise their roles in any future sequels. Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and James McAvoy publicly commented that if one of them passed on an X-Men movie, the other two would likely skip it as well. Fox could change their minds with gigantic piles of cash, but if the next film performed even worse than Apocalypse did, it wouldn’t be worth it.
After Logan, Fox had a feature centered around Gambit in the works, but development has now been stalled while the studio figures out what to do next. But don’t count on “handing the reins back to Marvel” to be their decision.
It's Fant4stic all over again!