With 32 comic book movies coming from DC and Marvel alone between now and 2020, the question won’t just be whether or not audiences will tire of the genre, it’s how studios will keep their properties in the conversation, and not drowned out by the noise from the competition. And Fox seems to have figured out how to get everyone to keep talking about X-Men until "X-Men: Apocalypse" arrives in 2016.
As we know, a longer version of "X-Men: Days Of Future Past" is coming this year — known as the "Rogue Cut" — which will reportedly feature at least ten minutes of new footage, including more of, you guessed it, Anna Paquin‘s mutant in scenes excised from the theatrical release. But this won’t just be a re-release of ‘DOFP’ on home video. Here’s what Fox Home Entertainment EVP of marketing communications James Finn tweeted last month (via X-Men Films):
And frankly, with home video sales dwindling, with buyers not just faced with digital options, but burned by years of studios re-releasing the same movies over and over with the barest of new extras, you have to give Fox credit for treating this as an entirely new release. Could they have just packaged it with the current ‘DOFP’ Blu-ray? Probably, but if Bryan Singer really wants the "Rogue Cut" to be considered as a separate entity, then perhaps this is the way to go. And if those extras just happen to tie into ‘Apocalypse’ somehow, then fans will be pleased as punch to get a new cut of ‘Future Past’ along with a sneak peek at the next entry in the series.