What Are The 2018 X-Men Movies?

Today, after months of ambiguity, 20th Century Fox finally announced release dates for three upcoming X-Men movies: New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

Fox has made it clear that there plans in the works to continue expanding the X-Men movies franchise, but they had been unusually silent about specific details until now.

The release date announcement shows how Fox is trying to add some variety to the X-Men movies lineup. One film is a young adult movie with a horror bent. Another is an ultraviolent, R-rated action-comedy. The third is more traditional superhero fare that fans of the X-Men movies have come to know.

That’s actually quite a bit for fans to digest in one sudden announcement, which is why ComicBook.com is here to breakdown what exactly each of these movies are, so you’ll be ready for a threesome of mutant movies to hit theaters in 2018.

Keep reading to see what 20th Century Fox’s 2018 X-Men movies are all about.

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New Mutants

April 13, 2018

New Mutants is based on The New Mutants, Marvel Comics’ first ever spin-off of the X-Men franchise. The concept was created by X-Men writer Chris Claremont and artist Bob McLeod. The team made their first appearance in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 in 1982.

With the revitalized X-Men team now full of young adults, the idea behind the new mutants was the revisit the original X-Men concept of gifted teenagers attending Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The team’s first story took place during a time when the X-Men were in space and Professor X believed they were dead. He sought out five more young mutants to attend his school.

In keeping with the spirit of the original New Mutants comic book series, the New Mutants movie is intended to be the X-Men movies franchise’s entry into the young adult movie genre. Josh Boone, who directed YA hit The Fault in Our Stars, pitched the film as a trilogy using a makeshift comic book he assembled from panels out of the New Mutants comics he loved growing up.

Boone is teamed with Knate Gwaltney to write the film’s script. Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber later came on to give the script another pass.

Boone has said that Demon Bear, the villain of one of the New Mutant’s best-loved stories, will be the antagonist of the film. He has also said that he’s aiming for a Stephen King meets Jon Hughes tone for the film

Boone has hinted that the film’s New Mutants roster will include:

• Magik, the sister of Russian X-Man Colossus capable of teleporting through the demon dimension Limbo. Also a master sorceress.
• Wolfsbane, a young Scottish girl with a mutant form of lycanthropy who was raised by a fundamentalist pastor.
• Mirage, a Native American girl who can psychically manifest another person’s greatest fear or desire.
• Cannonball, the son of a Kentucky coal miner who can blast across the sky.
• Sunspot, son of a wealthy Brazillian industrialist who can transform into a solar powered form that grants him super strength. A version of this character appeared in X-Men: Days of Future Past, played by Adan Canto.
• Warlock, a member of the alien race known as the Technarchy who flees to Earth to avoid having to face his father in mortal combat.

No official casting announcements have been made, but Nat Wolff was rumored to be in consideration to play Cannonball. Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was rumored for the role of Wolfsbane. Anya Taylor-Joy of The Witch was rumored for Magik.

Production on New Mutants is said to begin in May 2017, with filming taking place in Montreal and Boston.

Deadpool 2

June 1, 2018

Deadpool 2 is the follow-up to 2016’s R-rated surprise hit Deadpool.

Ryan Reynolds will return in the title role, playing Wade Wilson, the nigh unkillable Merc with a Mouth.

John Wick director David Leitch will slide into the director’s chair for the sequel, taking over for Deadpool director Tim Miller. Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese are returning to write the sequel’s script.

Original supporting cast members Colossus (Stefan Kapičić), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), Dopinder (Karan Soni), and Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) are all confirmed to return for the sequel. While she has not been confirmed, Morena Baccarin has expressed a desire to reprise her role as Vanessa and to see her become Copycat, the shapeshifting mutant she was based on from the Marvel Comics universe.

Atlanta breakout Zazie Beetz will play the role of Domino, a mutant mercenary with the superpower of control over probabilities that effectively grants her unbelievably good luck.

Josh Brolin will play Cable, a time-travelling mutant mercenary and hardcore soldier. Cable and Deadpool headlined a fan-favorite, 50-issue comic series where Cable played the straight man to Deadpool’s insanity.

Plot details for Deadpool 2 are currently unknown. Production on Deadpool 2 is expected to begin in Vancouver this summer.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

November 2, 2018

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the seventh installment of the core X-Men movies series and the sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse.

The film is inspired by “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” which is generally regarded as the greatest X-Men story ever told. Written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne, “The Dark Phoenix Saga” saw Jean Grey become possessed by a cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force. As Phoenix, she continued to fight alongside the X-Men, but psyhic manipulation by the villainous Hellfire Club caused the Phoenix Force to become corrupted into the Dark Phoenix.

As Dark Phoenix, Jean Grey destroyed and entire inhabited planet before returning to Earth, with the X-Men were just barely able to defeat her and seemingly get the Phoenix back under control.

However, the cosmic Shi’ar Empire was intent on seeing Jean Grey pay for her crimes. Jean’s fate was decided via trial-by-combat between X-Men and the Shi’ar Imperial Guard on the blue area of the moon, an encounter that ended tragically when the Phoenix began to reemerge from Jean’s psyche.

The X-Men movies have attempted to adapt the “The Dark Phoenix Saga” before in X-Men: The Last Stand. That film used a discarded alternate origin for the Phoenix, that it was a dangerously powerful aspect of Jean’s psyche that Professor X repressed with psychic blocks. This altered origin and intermingling of the Dark Phoenix plot with other, unreleated plot lines left fans feeling mostly unfulfilled by the film’s interpretation of the story.

No director is attached to X-Men: Dark Phoenix yet. Screenwriter Simon Kinberg was rumored to be considering directing the film himself, but Kinberg has said any news of him directing the film is premature at best.

Sophie Turner will return as Jean Grey. Tye Sheridan and Alexandra Shipp are expected to return as Cyclops and Storm, repsectively. The X-Men prequel trilogy leads – James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence – all saw their contracts expire following X-Men: Apocalypse. Their involvement in X-Men: Dark Phoenix remains unknown.