Fox Continues to Develop X-Men Projects Despite Disney Purchase

Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox is expected to change the media landscape as we know it, but it looks like that might not be slowing down one franchise.

In a recent interview with IGN, frequent X-Men producer and X-Men: Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg addressed the various X-Men movie projects that are still in development. As Kinberg explained, the Disney/Fox deal still being in the “pending” stage means that other X-Men movie projects are still being worked on in one way or another.

“Gambit has a great script and we’re looking to start that movie early next year.” Kinberg explained. “Multiple Man, that script’s being worked on right now. [With X-Force] we’re just waiting for Drew Goddard to be done with releasing his film that comes out in a few weeks, and then he’ll get started on that script to direct.”

For some Marvel fans, this will surely be a surprise, especially after the middling reaction to today’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix trailer debut. Previous reports suggested that Dark Phoenix and the also-delayed New Mutants would be Fox’s last Marvel movies before the purchase went through, after which the studio’s roster of characters would be folded into the MCU. At the time that the deal was first announced, that seemed to put Gambit and other potential projects in jeopardy.

“If Disney is an NFL team, then every movie on the calendar is like a Heisman Trophy winner.” One insider explained to The Hollywood Reporter back in December. “This raises the bar of what is a theatrical release.”

If projects like Gambit and Multiple Man are attempting to get off the ground – and do so within the continuity of the current X-Men universe – there’s no telling what success they would have under the leadership of Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

“I think it only makes sense,” Disney president Bob Iger said of Feige overseeing the Fox characters in a recent interview. “I want to be careful here because of what’s been communicated to the Fox folks, but I think they know. It only makes sense for Marvel to be supervised by one entity. There shouldn’t be two Marvels.”

Do you like that Fox is still working on Marvel movies with the Disney/Fox deal on the horizon? Let us know what you think in the comments below.