Fan Fridays: Will Apocalypse be the Last "X-Men" Movie?

With the most recent X-Men: Apocalypse trailer being released, the stage is set for what will be one of the most epic challenges the students of Charles Xavier have ever faced. Apocalypse may be the latest entry into the field but could it also be the last? Comicbook fan Sean Simoneau seems to think so as the long running series may have reached the perfect crescendo of super powers and time traveling chicanery for the brand name. Now don't get me wrong, there will certainly be more movies that have the mutants under the Fox banner, but just may not have the patented "X-Men" title to go along with them. As it stands, we're definitely getting a sequel to the wildly successful Deadpool and potentially an X-Force movie, but we're also getting a movie entitled "New Mutants" which we don't know much about. With the X-Men name however, the time may have come for it to go the way of the dinosaurs to set the stage for a new generation and a new attitude.

Deadpool has changed the name of the game moving forward. Fox Studios never thought that the Ryan Reynolds' movie was going to be as big as it was, and so, most likely, plans are beginning to shift over what comes next. Rather than focusing on the aging super team, things may begin to shift to focus on a team revolving around Deadpool and his "merry band" of folks including Cable, Domino, and a slew of other potential teammates. New Mutants was already confirmed long before Deadpool had hit the silver screen in his solo film, and you can bet that thought patterns may be working to bring it under the Wade Wilson banner rather than the "X" one.

We can't just look at the additions to the X-universe, we also have to take a gander at the subtractions to the cast of the team. Hugh Jackman is about to leave the universe with his final film being Wolverine 3. Jennifer Lawrence has stated on occasion that X-Men: Apocalypse is definitely her swan song with the team, as her contract expires. Producer of the film, Simon Kinberg, has even gone on record stating that Apocalypse will act as the final film for what was created with the beginning of X-Men: First Class. What this necessarily means is still up in the air, but with so many stars abandoning ship, priorities need to shift and Ryan Reynolds can act as the life preserver that the franchise really needed before Deadpool dropped.

Finally, it's a movie called Apocalypse! There's no time better than now to start a new brand as this would be the chance to wipe the slate clean with not only the biggest X-Men villain but one of the biggest storylines that the mutants have seen. The new mutants introduced, and those reintroduced such as Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler, can forge their own path as "New Mutants" rather than "X-Men" especially if Professor Xavier and Magneto bite the bullet and aren't there to lead them. In this new timeline, anything can happen and since X-Force may be taking over the reins of the "team movie" for Fox, pushing the "X-Men" to the side may be for the best.

X-Men: Apocalypse promises to be jam packed with mutants, immortal Egyptian despots, epic moments, and may act as the perfect jumping off point for the "X-Men" name.

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