Five X-Men Properties Fox Should Develop Before Another Fantastic Four Movie

Twentieth Century Fox is now batting 0 for 3 with its Fantastic Four franchise. Perhaps it’s time to let that world rest for a bit.

On the other hand, Fox’sX-Men franchise is as hot as it’s ever been, riding high after the success of X-Men: Days of Future Past, and with Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Gambit all releasing in 2016.

Fox has said it still plans to release Fantastic Four 2, but we can’t help but wonder if that money would be better spent on further developing the X-Men franchise.

Here are five X-Men properties we think Fox should develop before another Fantastic Four movie.

X-Force

  

The X-Men may be the public face of Xavier’s Dream, but not all heroes operate in the light.

There are two way an X-Force movie could work. The first is to embrace the completely 90’s feel of the original series and make a bombastic action movie, with Cable and crew starring.

The second route to take would be Uncanny X-Force, and make a movie about a covert team tasked with doing the jobs the X-Men can’t get their hands dirty with. This would be a perfect team for Deadpool to join up with, or even Angel should he undergo a transformation into Archangel in Apocalypse.

Either way, we’d be watching.

X-Factor

  

We think X-Factor Investigations is the perfect choice for Fox’s X-Men TV project, but for a film version we were thinking more along the lines of a mutant Suicide Squad.

We’d love to see the era of X-Factor where Forge led the team and kept bad guys like Mystique and Sabretooth in line using power nullifying collars, all funded by the government.

This would be a great opportunity to reintroduce Sabretooth into the X-Men movie universe, and could even be a launching platform for a Mystique solo movie, based on the Brian K. Vaughan comic book series. (Which, if you haven’t read, is great.)

X-23

  

With Hugh Jackman stepping down from his Wolverine role, Fox will likely want to replace the clawed mutant. Why not do it with his clone, who is assuming his mantle in the comics?

A movie based on X-23 would certainly be different in tone from past Wolverine movies, given that it stars a teenage girl.

Think of this one as the X-Men’s Hunger Games, with a young, strong female character taking on an oppressive branch of government in Weapon X.

Starjammers

  

Considering how many great space stories the X-Men have in their their library, it’s a little surprising that Fox has chosen to ignore the stars entirely with their franchise.

With the success Guardians of the Galaxy gave to Marvel, maybe it’s time they reconsidered that. The Starjammers provide a similar roguish space hero team for Fox to work with, and their leader, Corsair, is Cyclops and Havok’s father.

Both of the Summers brothers have spent time sailing the cosmos with their dad, so why not send at least one of them off on a trip? It would likely make for an exciting adventure film.

Excalibur or Captain Britain and MI13

  

Excalibur – or its spiritual successor, Captain Britain and the MI13 – a series with a lot of tonal flexibility. It can’t be a slapstick comedy, a drama, or an espionage thriller.

We’re imagining the Excalibur movie as something like what we expect  Justice League Dark to be. Take a group of mutants, bring them to a world of dark fantasy, and see how they survive and interact.

Like with other suggestions on this list, it would be something very different for the X-Men franchise. And a little variety in our superhero movies is always welcome.