After years of making films only revolving around Wolverine and the main X-Men team up, Fox is finally looking to expand their universe. Logan will be the final Wolverine solo movie starring Hugh Jackman, and potentially the last we see of the character for some time. However, the studio has found a new leading man in Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. The R-rated comedy has given Fox the ability to test the waters on other properties and see if they can be just as big of hits.

Deadpool 2 is one of Fox’s most anticipated movies thanks to this success, but Fox is also about to make one of their first real spin-off movies in New Mutants. While the cast of the latter would largely star new mutants, familiar faces are still scheduled to appear and connect this story to the main X-Men timeline. With Logan being their only superhero movie hitting theaters in 2017, Fox is hoping to get back to multiple films next year.

Producer Simon Kinberg spoke to Collider about the future of the X-Men franchise, specifically what was happening with Deadpool 2 and New Mutants. While both had already been confirmed to film this year and speculated to then be ready for a 2018 release, Kinberg has now confirmed that is what Fox is planning to do as well.

This news is not entirely surprising as both movies appear to be on track for productions later this year, but with Logan being the last movie Fox has a confirmed date for, it is nice to know roughly what to expect moving forward. Fox previously has announced three dates for 2018 that were scheduled to have X-Men films attached later on. Based on Kinberg’s comments and those dates, it would seem more likely than not that Deadpool 2 will hit theaters March 2nd, 2018, with New Mutants arriving June 29th, 2018.

We’re gearing up to make both of them this year. New Mutants we’re waiting on a new draft of the script, which we’re all very excited about. Josh Boone has been prepping that movie. Josh is someone who is a lifelong, hardcore fan of New Mutants, and the plan is to make that movie late spring, early summer of this year, and have it come out next year.

Similarly with Deadpool 2, Ryan and the guys have been working hard on the script. We have a really good script for that movie, and we’re into the casting process right now for some of the new characters. There aren’t a lot of new characters, but there are some big ones, as I’m sure you can imagine. And the plan would be to shoot that movie this year as well and have it come out next year. So potentially next year you will have a surfeit of X-Men and X-Men-related movies in theaters.

This tentative plan does leave out X-Men: Supernova, a project that will reportedly begin filming this summer as well. Fox had also announced a November 2nd, 2018 date as well, but that date seems unlikely for a mainline X-Men film. It is possible New Mutants and Supernova could switch places and give Josh Boone’s vision a spot with less pressure, but we will have to wait for official confirmation from Fox to find out any of this information.

In the meantime, both films will finish firming up their scripts, something Drew Goddard is now helping to do on Deadpool 2, and make casting decisions for new roles. Cable and Domino are both set to debut in Deadpool 2, whereas New Mutants has an entire cast of characters yet to be named. Anya-Taylor Joy as Magik, Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, and Nat Wolff as Cannonball have all been linked in various levels, but as both movies look to start filming sooner rather than later, these decisions should be made official rather quickly.

Source: Collider

  • Wolverine 3 Release Date: 2017-03-03 Deadpool 2 Release Date: 2018-05-18