10 X-Men Projects Currently In Development (And 10 That Are Rumored)

X-Men was the movie that kicked off the comic book movie boom that has been building for nearly twenty years. While Blade had proven that a movie based on a Marvel property could be a success, X-Men took one of the most popular titles within the company and turned it into a massive summer blockbuster.

Nobody thought it was going to work, as the studio had no faith in it and didn’t even test screen it, but viewers wound up loving it.

Over the past eighteen years, fans have been treated to eleven movies set within that universe. Even though the films eventually went for a younger cast with a prequel and then reset the timeline to allow themselves more freedom in Days of Future Past, the on-screen X-Men universe has still never rebooted.

Even now, with the Fox/Disney merger having become a reality that is fast approaching, there are tons of X-Men film and TV projects in development. Some are clear and concrete realities that everybody knows are coming, while others have yet to make it out of the rumor mill.

While some of these upcoming projects look more enticing than others, all of them have the potential to be truly special if executed correctly.

After all, the X-Men characters make up roughly half of the Marvel universe, and as exciting as it is to see all of Marvel under one roof, these characters could probably have kept going on their own forever.

With that said, here are the 10 X-Men Projects Currently In Development (And 10 That Are Rumored).

20 In Development: 143 

So far, 143 might be the most intriguing movie on Fox’s X-Men slate. It is definitely in development, being written by legendary comics writer Brian Michael Bendis and potentially directed by Tim Miller.

It has no name yet, but it is almost certain to be a Kitty Pryde movie - or at least a film that will feature her as a prominent character.

No details other than those have been revealed. Nonetheless, this is exciting for numerous reasons.

It would be Tim Miller’s first X-Men universe movie since leaving Deadpool 2 and would be Bendis’s first reunion with the character since leaving Marvel to write for DC.

Most importantly, it would be the first female-driven X-Men movie to date.

19 Rumored: Avengers vs. X-Men 

It’s no surprise that this has been rumored for so long, even if there’s probably no foundation to it whatsoever.

People are still wired to think of crossovers in terms of versus movies because that was the only way Hollywood handled crossovers for so long - from Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man to Freddy vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, and even Batman v Superman.

It’s still natural to think that if two things are going to combine together, they are going to fight.

With X-Men: Dark Phoenix on the horizon, it’s unlikely that the first MCU appearance of the X-Men would take any cues from the Avengers vs. X-Men comics given that that series also revolved around the Phoenix as the driving force behind the fight between the two teams.

18 In Development: X-23 

Fans were blown away by the appearance of young Laura in Logan. Even though the movie marked a definite ending for the character of Wolverine, there was a possibility that she could go on to potentially launch her own franchise, and after the massive success of Logan, that became almost an inevitability.

Logan director James Mangold has even teased the possibility of returning to direct the movie himself.

At the very least, there is a script at this point. Some semblance of work on this project has begun, though it’s unclear when fans might ever actually see it.

Even though X-23 is in development, it has yet to make it on Fox’s ever-shifting slate of upcoming Marvel projects.

17 Rumored: Deadpool Animated

It has been made abundantly clear that following some sort of creative differences, Donald Glover’s animated Deadpool series will not be moving ahead.

FX doesn’t want it and they don’t plan to hire anyone else to produce that particular show.

Despite this, though, the head of FX noted that Marvel retained the TV rights to the property and said that he fully expects them to make their own animated Deadpool series.

This is almost a no-brainer considering Deadpool’s enormous popularity.

There’s no way of knowing when or even if people will eventually see a new Deadpool animated series, but it might depend on the success of DC Universe’s similarly themed animated Harley Quinn.

16 In Development: Multiple Man 

The announcement of this movie completely took people by surprise with how unexpected it was.

It almost sounded like an April Fool’s joke, as it involved James Franco returning to comic book movies for a film based around a character that is not by any stretch a household name.

However, this movie definitely showcases how the X-Men universe is focusing more and more on standalone movies unrelated to the larger continuity following the success of Logan and Deadpool.

It’s understandable why an actor like Franco would be excited by a project like Multiple Man, though, considering how much range it would allow for to play so many duplicates of the same character.

There’s no telling if Franco is still interested or whether the movie will see completion, but it is in the works.

15 Rumored: An X-Men/Spider-Man Crossover 

With Spider-Man still being a new addition to the MCU and having sort of teamed up with Iron Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming, so it’s no surprise that fans have started speculating that the wall-crawler might team up with the X-Men in a future MCU movie.

Unfounded as this probably is, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see once the Disney/Fox merger is completed, given that Spider-Man and the X-Men actually have a long history of teaming up in the comics.

There was also a 1990s crossover between their two animated series and a video game at the same time titled Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge.

This rumor spread like crazy when Sony made a bid for Fox as well.

There’s almost no way that this is actually in the cards, but if it could be pulled off, it would be an amazing treat for fans.

14 In Development: Deadpool 3

There’s been a surprising amount of back-and-forth on Deadpool 3, despite the success of both the character and the franchise.

Initially, Ryan Rynolds said that he wasn’t sure if the character would continue into a third solo movie, because he figured that the studio would just move ahead with X-Force instead.

While that feature is still in development, it looks like another Deadpool is in the works as well.

Reynolds has talked about it more openly lately, even noting that he would like to see Hugh Jackman’s return in the movie.

Reynolds clarified that he would respect Jackman’s decision to hang up the claws, and cameo in the movie as himself, not Wolverine.

13 Rumored: Hellfire 

This TV series was in development for a brief time and almost seemed like a surefire thing. It was going to be set in the 1960s and depict the origins of the iconic Hellfire Club.

Part of what made this puzzling news is the fact that X-Men: First Class had already been set in the 1960s and prominently featured the Hellfire Club, which would have made for a very bizarre setting for the TV series.

Ultimately, the series didn’t wind up moving forward at the time.

There are still rumors that it might be dusted off at some point with a new show runner, given the success of both Legion and The Gifted.

However, it seems unlikely simply because The Gifted has started to involve the Hellfire Club moving into the second season and promises to feature the group fairly prominently moving forward.

12 In Development: The New Mutants 

No matter what anyone has said at this point, The New Mutants is in development.

It has clearly suffered quite a bit behind the scenes. Many have said that the studio was nervous with the horror movie approach that the film had taken, as was evidenced by the trailer, so the movie is being reshot to be more in line with a traditional teen superhero film.

Others have said that the reshoots are meant to lean even heavier into the psychological horror elements promised by that first trailer.

The most puzzling thing remains just how close the movie was to coming out before the decision was made to pull it from the schedule.

The trailer had already been in regular theater rotation and the movie was weeks away from release when the decision was made — whatever the reasons may be — to pull it from the slate and reshoot the bulk of it.

11 Rumored: X-Men: Dark Phoenix Part 2

This is another rumor that seems almost impossibly unlikely, but it’s hard to say at this point.

After Dark Phoenix was announced, there were persistent rumors that the movie might be a two-parter. It made sense, as Avengers: Infinity War had already announced that plan as had Justice League.

Obviously, only Avengers made good on that promise.

There’s nothing in Dark Phoenix that seems like it would warrant a two-parter unless they had done X-Men: Phoenix and simply followed it with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but that clearly isn’t the case.

With so much of this movie focusing on Jean Grey and her dark turn, it’s hard to see where there would really be room to split the movie into two parts, if there’s even any remote truth to this rumor at all.

10 In Development: The Gifted Season 2 

The Gifted is the most quickly upcoming entry on this list, as it will premiere its second season on September 25th.

There were some major cliffhangers dropped at the end of the previous season. Unexpected lines have been drawn, the Hellfire Club has come into play in a serious way, and the Mutant Underground is fractured.

There are so many different directions that the new season could go and fans are no doubt excited for them.

The return of The Gifted is being promoted as “the dawn of the mutant age” and fans will have to wait and see what that means for its diverse cast of characters when the series returns, though a fight between friends and family seems inevitable.

9 Rumored: A New X-Men Animated Series 

These rumors have been circulated since before the Disney/Fox merger had even been made official.

Despite X-Men being the most successful Marvel animated series of the ‘90s, there hasn’t been an X-Men cartoon since 2009’s Wolverine and the X-Men, which was short-lived even though it was well received.

Since then, Marvel’s animation focus has been much more heavily focused on Avengers and Spider-Man and even Guardians of the Galaxy, while the X-Men have been almost entirely absent.

One can only hope that a new cartoon will come out of this merger and it seems likely, but it’s all speculation at this point.

Anything could happen, but there’s no doubt that this is something fans have been waiting for.

8 In Development: X-Force

This movie seems to be moving full steam ahead, even with the merging of the two studios. It doesn’t seem as if the deal will affect any X-Men related movies already in the schedule, so X-Force is in the clear with director Drew Goddard at the helm.

Some fans might be wondering just how this will work after the events of Deadpool 2, but several standout characters of that movie, such as Cable, Domino, and of course Deadpool himself, are mainstay X-Force characters so there’s no way they’d be excluded.

Even at this point, after the movie has been in development for a bit, it’s unclear exactly who the other team members might be.

With the success of Deadpool 2 and the establishment of the X-Force brand in the movies, fans are no doubt excited for this one, no matter what form the movie takes.

7 Rumored: House of M 

Even before the Disney/Fox merger was announced, there have always been rumors that somehow negotiations have been worked out to allow the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver to reclaim their mutant origins on the screen.

Since the deal was officially announced, these rumors have only doubled, if not tripled.

Many people expect the Scarlet Witch’s heritage to be revealed as something closer to her comic book origins once the MCU is allowed to bring in Magneto and the other X-Men characters.

Elizabeth Olsen has also been teasing how much fun it would be to get to play the much more unstable version of Scarlet Witch that appeared in House of M, though fans should not hold their breath, as it appears to be nothing more than simple speculation.

6 In Development: Gambit 

Despite going through a laundry list of directors, Gambit is still in the pipeline and the folks at Fox have made it very clear that this film is still in development.

After several years, at this point, Channing Tatum is still attached to play the titular hero.

This remains something of a passion project for the actor, as the character is his favorite comic book superhero.

Since Tatum has helped to develop it, the movie has courted some major A-list directors, from Doug Liman to Gore Verbinski.

Many of them apparently signed on, but none of them really seemed to last all that long. At the moment, Gambit is still without a director with no one new attached just yet.

5 Rumored: New Mutants 2

It seems incredibly unlikely that there will be a sequel to The New Mutants considering how long the movie has been delayed.

People are even wondering if it will ever actually be released, or if it will see a quiet VOD release and skip theaters entirely.

Alternatively, like other long delayed studio projects, it could hit VOD and theaters at the same time, similar to Amityville: Awakening.

Regardless, it’s hard to imagine a sequel to the movie considering all the behind-the-scenes drama and the reported extensive reshoots.

Despite this, New Mutants was planned as a trilogy. It was meant to be a franchise, as almost all of these movies are.

If the film does prove to be successful, there are plans for a sequel, or at least ideas for where the story could go.

Even if it’s not a huge critical success, it could still see a follow up down the line, similar to the in-development Suicide Squad sequel.

4 In Development: Legion Season 3 

Legion season three is definitely on its way, though the second season only ended early this summer, so fans shouldn’t expect to see it for awhile.

Nonetheless, creator Noah Hawley is already hard at work and it’s clear that he and the whole team know where this story is headed.

The second season offered many twists and turns. Without giving too much away, it looks like the third season might take the series in a direction that closely resembles the comics to a surprising degree.

This show has been a critical hit from the moment it premiered and only seems to be gaining traction, so it’s going to be a great treat for fans just to be able to see it continue.

Even if it’s not clear when, more Legion is certainly something to look forward to.

3 Rumored: An X-Men/Fantastic Four Crossover Movie 

This movie has been rumored for a long time, even before there had ever been talks of a Disney/Fox merger to allow the characters into the MCU.

For a while, it seemed like this was going to be the beginning of an X-Men/Fantastic Four cinematic universe.

There had been a few attempts to try and figure out a story, but apparently nothing was ever seriously considered.

Yet the rumors still persist, even now. Fans want to see these franchises collide, whether this be before the merger goes through or after.

Amazingly, this crossover came incredibly close to happening, as a planned scene in Deadpool 2 would have shown the team auditioning to be members of Deadpool’s new X-Force.

There had even been concept art for the characters, though their cameos ultimately never materialized.

2 In Development: X-Men: Dark Phoenix 

Like New Mutants, Dark Phoenix is the subject of much scrutiny and skepticism from fans. Unlike New Mutants, it doesn’t appear to be warranted.

Not long ago, it was reported that Dark Phoenix would undergo three months of reshoots when it was actually simply about to begin the three weeks of reshoots that had been announced much earlier.

On a daily basis, many fans still question whether or not this movie is even happening or if it will ever actually be released.

The release date has only changed once to allow for the reshoots to accommodate the many A-list actors of the core cast.

It is still scheduled to come out early next year and there’s no reason at this point to think that this could potentially change.

1 Rumoed: An MCU X-Men Movie

The only reason why this one still has to be qualified as a rumor is the fact that the Disney/Fox merger is still in the process of happening.

Once that goes through, fans are confident that Marvel will get to work bringing the X-Men into the MCU with their own movie.

There’s probably a good reason for this. It’s easy to imagine Marvel Studios grabbing these characters the moment they’re given the okay to do so.

Kevin Feige has said that while there are no active plans for how to bring in these characters, there are ideas for how it could be done if they are given the opportunity.

This opportunity is clearly on the horizon, so when the deal goes through, almost everyone expects to see these characters in the MCU sooner rather than later.

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Can you think of any other X-Men projects that are on their way or being rumored? Let us know in the comments!

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