This week, the almost-20-year run of Fox “X-Men” movies comes to an end in “Dark Phoenix.” (Yes, “The New Mutants” is on the horizon but it has nothing to do with the core ‘X-Men’ films from what we can tell.) No spoilers will be given here, but after you’ve seen the film, it’s clear that writer-director Simon Kinberg set up “Dark Phoenix” as about as much of an ending as the mutant franchise will see. The timing couldn’t be more perfect, as Fox was recently acquired by Disney, and it’s widely believed that the ‘X-Men’ franchise will be given a full reboot down the line.
However, according to Hutch Parker, one of the long-time producers of Fox’s ‘X-Men’ franchise, even if the Disney deal didn’t go through, it’s likely that the mutants would have gone through a long-overdue change.
“I think had the Disney deal not gone through, it’s likely whatever came next was going to be radically different,” Parker said to YahooUK. “And that was part of our intention and design.”
He continued, “And it really did grow organically out of the last handful of movies and feeling like it was time, and keeping with kind of the great work you’re seeing be done elsewhere. Then we’d not be too precious, and we’d be a little bit more bold.”
Sadly, there’s no word on what that “radical” change would have looked like. However, we can assume that the current actors and storylines would have ended, and the whole period piece aspect would be thrown out of the window, giving the X-Men a chance to actually be a modern-day superhero team.
The current run of ‘X-Men’ films was spawned after the last radical “reboot” of the franchise in 2011, with Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class.” That film, a ‘60s-era origin story for the mutant superheroes, set up this current iteration of the series, with each subsequent film jumping a decade into the future. Your mileage may vary, but many fans believe that after ‘First Class,’ the quality (and coherence) of the franchise went downhill.
But as Parker alludes to, it’s impossible to survive as just a generic superhero franchise in 2019. If you turn in a superhero film that feels same-same, then you’re going to fail. In a world with “Black Panther,” “Wonder Woman,” “Avengers: Endgame,” and hell, even “Fast Color,” you can’t just present superpowered individuals fighting a generic bad guy without audiences growing bored. You need to have something to say. You definitely need to be bold.
Maybe one day we’ll see the ‘X-Men’ films join those great superhero films. Either way, Disney or no Disney, it appears that even the folks behind the scenes knew that it was time for the mutants to evolve.