Despite some poor critical response to big superhero movies The Wolverine, Man of Steel, and Iron Man 3, those three pictures combined to gross over two and a quarter billion dollars this summer on the global market, a strong signal that comic book inspiration isn’t leaving Hollywood anytime soon. 20th Century Fox, who owns the film rights to both the Fantastic Four and X-Men stable of characters, has been putting a huge marketing push behind next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past already, and has announced both another X-Men movie and plans to reboot the Fantastic Four franchise, which has laid fallow since the poorly received Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. But what about a combo of Fox’s two Marvel franchises?
A report by The Motley Fool website had initially suggested that such a project was in the works, but it seems that this was mere conjecture after all. The Motley Fool has since amended their story to only suggest that this would be one potentially profitable venture for Fox to consider, issuing the following clarification:
Note: A previous version of this article inaccurately reported a planned film release that combined both X-Men and Fantastic Four. The Fool regrets the error.
But it got us thinking, what would such a film look like? The Hollywood Reporter suggested that such a crossover might follow a comic book storyline about the inception of the Fantastic Four, one in which Reed Richards intentionally carried out the experiments behind the back of the other team members that led to the acquisition of their powers. Also involved are the X-Men, who partner with the Four’s villain Doctor Doom when it seems he’s able to save a dying team member.
If Fox decides to pursue a movie along these lines, it could make a fitting sequel to the Fantastic Four reboot. As we’ve previously discussed, the reboot could pull heavily from Marvel’s Ultimate Fantastic Four continuity, but this could still fit with the above storyline, which came from an original continuity story. The crossover could also be way to incorporate the Fantastic Four characters into the Avengers-style universe building that Fox seems to be attempting with Days of Future Past and the planned X-Force spinoff movie.
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