20th Century Fox’sX-Men: Apocalypseis shaping up to be one of 2016’s most highly-anticipated movies, bringing the most currentX-Mentrilogy to a close, which started withX-Men: First Classand continuing withX-Men: Days of Future Past. Before that movie hits theaters, in just a few short weeks, the long-awaitedX-MenspinoffDeadpoolhits theaters on February 12. ThisR-ratedadventure has already been confirmed as part of theX-Menfranchise canon, along with the upcomingGambit, which starts filming in March.
SinceX-Men: Apocalypseis set in 1983 and bothDeadpoolandGambitare set in present day, many have wondered if there will be any direct connections betweenX-Men: Apocalypseand any of these spinoffs, despite the 30-year time gap.JoBlocaught up with producerSimon Kinbergon the set last year, where he explained how exactly these spinoffs fit within theX-Men: Apocalypsetimeline.
“Well this movie take space chronologically before those other films, so it’s more like those films have to acknowledge this than we acknowledgeGambit,Deadpool, orFantastic Fouror anything else that exists within the sort of Fox/Marvel universe. But I work on all of those films in one capacity or another, either as a producer on all of them and as a writer onFantastic Fourand this movie, so I’m certainly aware of all the different stories we’re telling at the same time, and they all are part of a larger fabric now, and so the world ofDeadpool, the world ofGambit, exists in a post-X-Men: Days of Future Pastpost-X-Men: Apocalypseworld where all of these stories are the same as our shared history. The same way that each of us of different ages knows about Nixon and knows about Reagan and knows about 9/11, our fictitious events like the stadium dropping on the White House in 1973 is part of the world in whichGambit,Deadpool,Wolverine 3on forward exists.”
X-Men: Apocalypseis set 10 years afterX-Men: Days of Future Past, which essentially reset the timeline, showing a future scene at the end where beloved characters like Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) were resurrected and all seemed to be right with the world. Many fans assumed thatX-Men: Apocalypsewould eventually lead up to the original 2000X-Men, but that isn’t exactly the case. Here’s what the producer had to say.
“It’s not leading necessarily toward exactly where we foundPatrick Stewartand theX-Menat the beginning ofX-Men1. There are some things that lead in that general direction, that was part of the philosophy we had at the end of Days of Future Past is that you can’t fully change the course or current of the river, but you can just divert it a little bit, and we diverted it a little bit. So some things will be surprises; people could die that were alive inX-Men1, 2 and 3, or people could survive that died during 1, 2 and 3. In terms of being difficult, I don’t think it felt difficult because the world was more open, because it felt like we were still following the stories of our main characters. We imagine this like a trilogy of stories of Charles, Erik, Hank, and Raven and so we really were trying to tell what is the continuation and in some ways completion of their character arcs that we began in First Class, without thinking so much about how it links to the year 2000. It was really about these people who began in some ways as friends or strangers, became friends, became enemies, became lovers, became all of this-how do you complete that story and in some ways sort of bring the family back together in this film?”
Gambitis still technically set for an July 22, 2025 release date, but since it was recently confirmed that production won’t begin until March, it seems likely that the studio will push this spinoff into 2017.Wolverine 3is set for release on June 27, 2025, which will close outHugh Jackman’s legendary run as the title character. After that, 20th Century Fox is developingThe New Mutants, and there have been rumors thatBryan Singerwill be directingX-Men 7, which is reportedly set for 2018. What do you think about these newX-Men: Apocalypsedetails?
