Fox Superhero Universe... The FUTURE!

X-men: Days of Future Past is without a doubt, my favorite of the X-men franchise.

The truth is, I have never been an over the top X-men fan. I almost feel like I missed the first movie and was too late to really get invested in the films when 2 and 3 came out.

Honestly, this sounds horrible, but X-men: The Last Stand was the first X-men movie I actually watched in theaters.

I actually was introduced to X-men at the most horrible time in the franchise's history. And even though I saw the first one before I saw Origins, the two movies I was first introduced to when it came to the X-men universe were Last Stand and Origins.

As you can probably guess, I was not a huge fan of the franchise. Granted I was young and thought anything with superheroes was entertaining, even if the movie wasn't good. But when I got in the world of looking at movies critically and seeing them in regards to a larger universe, I didn't see the X-men universe really going anywhere and I thought the logical choice was to bring it back to Marvel to see Wolverine join the Avengers.

I won't say my tune changed incredible when First Class came out. However, it was the movie that made me start to rethink my thoughts on the X-men universe.

This movie is just down right fun. I think eventually I'll have to re-watch it and give it a review. I love James McEvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto. I wasn't wild about Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique but that soon changed in Days of Future Past. And Kevin Bacon really did surprise me as the movie's main villain.

However, the movie stumbles a little bit when it spends a lot of its time on kids who they recruit... and then don't really do anything.

When the movie is focused on Charles and Eric, the movie shines. When the movie is focused on their mission from the CIA, the movie shines. When the movie focuses on the universe they live in with mutants changing the course of history, the movie shines.

While this movie is not perfect, it was definitely my favorite of the X-men franchise and still holds a close second to Days of Future Past.

And that was the great part of Days of Future Past. When The Wolverine came out, I didn't want to see it because I was more interested in James McEvoy's Professor X and Michael Fassbender's Magneto that I didn't care about Wolverine. As much as I think Hugh Jackman is a great Wolverine, I don't think his standalone movies are very good. I liked Days of Future Past so much because I got to see those characters I had grown to love in First Class evolve and continue their story in Days of Future Past.

Not only that, but the movie was able to reach back to the great parts of the old franchise and have them interact with the new franchise in a way that made both shine.

Days of Future Past is really kind of a great movie.

So now what?

Oh yeah... that... shit...

I was like many people and I did not have a clue as to who this blue guy fucking with the pyramids was at the end of Days of Future Past. Well it was Apocalypse and he's going to be the bad guy for the next X-men film, properly named, X-men: Apocalypse.

So what do we know about this film?

Well its going to take place in the 80s. Its not going to feature the old cast (IE, Patrick Stewart, Ian Mckellen) Hugh Jackman's involvement in it is still to be announced. And Apocalypse is going to be played by Oscar Isaacs. 

This movie sounds awesome. 

Well... that's my gut reaction. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect from this movie. The reigns have been passed onto this younger cast. And we have to wait till 2016 to get this movie. 

But its not just this movie. 2016 is going to be a huge movie for comic book movies and Fox is bringing it with three on its slate. Apocalypse is actually the second film, aired in May. 

The year will actually start off with a Deadpool standalone film with Ryan Reynold reprising his role as "The Merc with the Mouth"

 ... Alright...

Apparently the test footage shown at comic-con was so well received that the movie was green lit and Reynolds was confirmed to return.

Of all the films, this is the one I'm looking forward to the least. From what I have learned about Deadpool is that he's a vigilante who knows that he's in a comic book. He's funny, he's vulgar. It sounds like a really funny comic book and I do actually like the the test footage.

But Deadpool, like a couple other speculated movies, asks a question that I think a lot of people are asking, does he fit into the great universe.

Now I want to be the one that says, he doesn't have to. In fact, I actually hope Deadpool doesn't fit in with the X-men Universe for two reasons. It makes his movie all the more significant, just standing on his own, and it maintains the suspense and atmosphere of the main stream X-men films as they do have a more serious vibe to them. This way, Deadpool can be an action comedy, and X-men can remain an action drama. Don't cross the wires. If you do have him in the same universe, don't have them interact. Deadpool can just stay where he is and maybe joke about Apocalypse from afar, but please don't mix these two... remember the last time that happened?

OH GOD! PUT IT AWAY!

So in February, the Merc with the Mouth shows up and gives us the best comedy Ryan Reynolds can give us which, if its anything from the test footage, I can dig it. 

Then there's Apocalypse. 

The interesting part about this is that this film will feature young versions of the title characters of the X-men franchise, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Storm. And when I say young versions, I mean REALLY young. 

Like everyone thought the Fantastic Four were young.

Jean Grey will be portrayed by Sophie Turner (or Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones) Cyclops will be portrayed by Tye Sheridan (AKA that kid from Mud) and Storm will be portrayed by Alexandra Shipp... whoever that is. 

I, like almost everyone else in the world, have no idea who Alexandra Shipp is. I don't want to give her too much shit, especially if I don't know too much about her but filmography doesn't look too impressive. 

The one I know the best is Sophie Turner. Now I haven't watched the fourth season of Game of Thrones, I've heard Sansa becomes a little bit better of a character, I don't know. Honestly, I have no problem with this casting. I'm sure if Sophie Turner can do more than the whiney annoying thing she played in the first three seasons of Game of Thrones, I'm sure she'll be a great Jean Grey. I don't know what it is, but Sophie Turner seems to me to be the most qualified here and I'm actually really excited to see if she does well or not. 

Tye Sheridan I'm kind of up in the air. I didn't think he was awful in Mud, but I didn't love him in it. Honestly, the guy looks the youngest out of the three and I'm not totally sure how I feel about that.

Honestly, I'm not totally sure about how I feel about this casting and its not on the actors. I actually don't care that much on the actors. For me its more about the age they're going for. It all depends on how old these characters are suppose to be in the movie. I'm just afraid that these characters are going to be portrayed as 16 to 18 year old children as opposed to young adults in their early twenties. 

And regardless of age, it depends on what they'll be doing. If they're just dicking around like the actual "first class" in First Class did, I don't want them there. I want these characters to have a quintessential role in the film and not just be the goofy kids in the movie who Xavier needs to protect. I don't want any dumb teenage BS taking away from taking down Apocalypse and anything else that wishes to do the X-men and the world harm. 

For the most part, I'm excited for Apocalypse. I have no idea how its going to go down, or if its going to be any good, but I'm looking forward to Apocalypse, mainly because of the performance of Days of Future Past and my faith in Bryan Singer. He knows this universe and he hopefully knows where he's going. 

And then after Apocalypse, there's going to be a Gambit movie with Channing Tatum.

... I have nothing to say about this. This sounds awesome. I think Taylor Kitsch shit the bed with Gambit and I hope Tatum does a better job. I have no doubt that Tatum will show up in the X-men universe down the road, he could even be the new figure head of the X-men universe when Hugh Jackman wants to move on. Gambit is very much different than Deadpool and needs to be in the universe, interacting with the X-men. This is nonnegotiable.

Furthermore, I like Channing Tatum. I liked him in 21 Jump Street and others and I think the guy has evolved as an actor.

But this Gambit movie really makes me question where exactly the X-men universe is headed.

Apocalypse is going to be the end of the trilogy started by First Class. But there's no way Fox is done after that. They want to make a universe just as bad as Sony does, but they have a few more options. They have the ability to make the X-men universe that the first "trilogy" of movies never even dreamed.

Not to mention that little thing that's happening in August of this year.

If that movie turns out to be good, which I hope it does, we have the potential of seeing an X-men and Fantastic Four team up movie. That's still years down the road as they try and break the mold X-men has been in for years.

But is that it?

The unfortunate answer is yes. Fox suffers from the same crippling circumstance as Sony does in that they only have so much to run with. Its impossible to do something as big as The Avengers in the Fox universe because they don't have as many properties. Now, Fox is in a better situation than Sony because instead of just one superhero, they have a huge universe of the X-men as well as the Fantastic Four mythos.

I mean there's a reason nobody has said anything along the lines of Fox selling X-men back to Marvel since The Wolverine, because it seems like they have a plan. And I like that. As much as I would like to see Wolverine in the Avengers, Captain America fighting villains Magneto and other villains from the X-men universe, we get a wider variety of shit to watch when the rights are scattered around to different studios. Especially if they're done right, we get a year like 2014 where we had four comic book movies in one year. That was unheard of prior to this year, and its because Marvel and Fox have their shit together. Sony not so much. But at least Fox has a plan...

I just don't know what that plan is.

Apocalypse seems to be the Thanos of the X-men universe. Its still too early to tell how big of a villain the hacker Doom is suppose to be in Fantastic Four. When these two franchise finally hit, what are they going to fight? Where are they going to go?

I'm at a little bit of a disadvantage here because I don't know too much about the different storylines of either franchise. I don't know what route they could go. 2016 seems to be the big year for Fox... but I have no idea where they plan on going from there. The only things I've heard are more Wolverine movies and possibly X-Force? Whatever that is.

Don't start calling for Fox to give up the rights just yet, lets just wait and see. I have no doubt that they're sitting there right now thinking over plans for the future, but I would say there's a fifty-fifty shot that come 2017, Fox might be just as lost as they were when Last Stand came out and nobody knew where to take the franchise. 2016 can either be the beginning, or the end of Fox's reign in the X-men Universe, we'll have to wait and see.

But where do you think the Fox superhero universe is going? Do you think The Fantastic Four and the X-men are eventually going to meet up? Do you think Deadpool should be a standalone film?

Comment and Discuss below! And shoot me a tweet with your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24. Also follow me to get updates on the blogs and future posts.

I'll leave you with this. Along side a post I did before Days of Future Past, just look and laugh as to how wrong I was here. I'll leave you with Pete Holmes firing Gambit as Charles Xavier. Enjoy!