X-Men Producer Boards Venom 2

As Venom 2 inches closer to production, the film has added another major superhero player to its crew. New reports (via THR) suggest former X-Men producer Hutch Parker has joined Sony’s Andy Serkis-led film. Most recently, Parker was credited on the critically-panned Dark Phoenix, though other X-Men credits include the Oscar-nominated Logan as well as X-Men: Days of Future Past. Other superhero credits for Parker include The Wolverine, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot.

Parker will join perennial Marvel producers Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach on the project. In fact, other reports say he’s already been part of the project for months, helping Serkis lay the groundwork for the film. Production on the film is expected to begin in a matter of weeks from a script by Venom scribe Kelly Marcel.

Now that 20th Century Fox has been purchased by The Walt Disney Company — causing all X-Men and Fantastic Four characters to revert to Marvel Studios — it’s understandable former X-Men crew are getting superhero gigs at other studios. It has yet to be revealed if Parker’s new deal is a one-off for the anticipated Tom Hardy-starring sequel or if he’ll be increasingly involved in Sony’s Universe of Marvel Characters, which will apparently also include a Madame Webb film.

When we spoke with Parker during the press tour for Dark Phoenix, the producer said it was always Fox’s plan to end the current iteration of the X-Men franchise with Dark Phoenix — seemingly suggesting the Fox and Disney merger had nothing to do with the storytelling.

“You know, we did, not for the reasons that would seem to be the case now, but in the sense that we felt like we were completing certain emotional arguments,” Parker said at the time. “We were completing certain emotional ideas. And in trying to take the story further, it dictated we make certain choices from which we couldn’t come back. You know, Raven’s death, certain choices that, I guess for me, one of the challenges of doing the sequel to a franchise is how do you keep it fresh? How do you keep pushing forward? And I think too often we treat the ground is we play it safe and we don’t make movies that are as interesting as they should be.”

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