What We Want Fox's Mystery Marvel Movies To Be
Fox has dropped a schedule-bomb on comic fans , and it comes in the form of two mysterious Marvel movies that are planned for late 2017 and early 2018. Bear in mind that Fox currently has dominion over the X-Men and the Fantastic Four movie franchises, and the latter's recent reboot was a box office catastrophe. There are some obvious possibilities for these new films, but even the confined realms of mutants and cosmic-ray-irradiated families can be pretty diverse. What possible mystery movies could Fox pull out of the X-Men and Fantastic Four's realms?
Deadpool 2
With all of the heat behind Deadpool, it would make sense for Fox to release the film's sequel in the next few years. We already know it's going to happen. Thanks to the after-credits scene in the first film (spoilers ahead, but you honestly shouldn't be reading this anyway if you haven't watched the movie yet), we already know that it's going to co-star Cable as Deadpool's partner in crime. With so many stories involving the two, what will Fox finally choose as a story arc to film? The Deadpool sequel can't come soon enough, and Wade Wilson needs a date for chimichanga night.
Gambit
The other main Fox film that's struggled through development is Gambit, based on the Cajun X-Man who can charge materials with energy and make them explode. With directors coming and going, and star Channing Tatum reportedly leaving and then returning to the project, Gambit was removed from the most recent slate of Fox offerings for 2016. Hopefully, this just means everything's been pushed back until 2018. The card-throwing ex-criminal can be a fairly interesting character, so it might just make for a great film if it ever gets off the ground. He has to have Rogue as a love interest though.
New Mutants
There's definitely an interest in including more mutants in the Marvel universe, with shows like Legion and Hellfire Club potentially in development, not to mention the audience reaction to Marrow's one-second cameo in Deadpool, so we're ready for any mutant they can throw at us. A script for a movie based on the New Mutants series has been completed recently and is just awaiting the full cinematic treatment. It would be awesome to see some slightly weirder X-Men finally make a legit appearance on film. We'd totally forgive Fox for the first Wolverine movie if they featured the Demon Bear or Warlock, the alien computer virus superhero.
Old Man Logan
With a third Wolverine film on the horizon, and Hugh Jackman's "really this time I mean it" final performance as the iconic character looming, rumors are abound that this movie will actually be based on the "Old Man Logan" story. In this story, supervillains have finally taken over the world and Logan abandoned heroism for reasons that we won't spoil here. It would be a pretty great story to close out the Wolverine trilogy that follows him from creation until old age. Even though it can't legally include The Hulk as it does in the comics, it might just include Sabretooth, which is way scarier.
House of M/Messiah Complex
The X-Men have been through enough persecution during their film franchise, so what if Fox finally flipped the script and made the mutants the dominant force on Earth? X-Men fans know that the whole "House of M" and "Messiah Complex" arcs are pretty incredible reads, and redefined the entire Marvel universe for years to come. The stories work well with the appearance of Cable. We've already seen Quicksilver, it's time to see Fox's version of the Scarlet Witch.
The Coming of Galactus
It's often said that The Incredibles is the best Fantastic Four film ever made, and it's arguably true. With all of the F4's film failures, it's time to absolutely, completely reboot the super family's cinematic presence. They really deserve another chance. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has Thanos coming in hot, so maybe the thing to make the Fantastic Four great is to bring on Galactus, the world-eating alien—and do it right this time. For the love of Jack Kirby, don't make it another origin story; audiences are ready for a 40-something scientist and his family to just jump into the action without explanations. They don't reboot the origins each time a new artist takes over a comic series, so we don't need a new origin story every time the roles are recast.
Namor
As far back as 1997, Marvel and friends have been playing around with making a film about Namor. He's basically Marvel's Aquaman: a humanoid guy who rules an underwater kingdom and is usually kind of a jerk. Namor might not seem like the most thrilling Marvel antihero, but he's one of the first ever created. His moral ambiguity and environmentalism makes him a pretty alright guy to make a film about. Ladies will enjoy 120 minutes of a shirtless hunk, and Marvel will be able to compete with Aquaman. Unfortunately, we might have to call Matt Murdock to figure out who owns the film rights to Namor.
The Thing
While each of the members of the Fantastic Four often wander off on their own adventures, it's always The Thing who gets the best comic tales, whether it's the heartbreaking Night Falls on Yancy Street or the surreal Freakshow. They could build that up to an actually worthwhile film featuring the rest of the family. Just imagine what kind of movies you could get out of Ben Grimm working solo.
Super-Skrull
Guardians of the Galaxy already scored the Kree alien race for their mythology, but the Fantastic Four have some very close ties with the Kree's intergalactic rivals, the Skrull. As shape-shifting aliens, they present a classic sci-fi invasion scenario, which is an ideal premise for a one-off film. Better yet, the Fantastic Four are known to go to battle against the powerful Super-Skrull, an alien that has all four of their powers combined. Let's just ignore the power-blending stuff they already did in Rise of the Silver Surfer.