After the blistering success of Deadpool – which broke records for Valentine’s Day weekend – 20th Century Fox is patting themselves on the back. With more than quadruple the itinital budget back in the kitty the executive team are looking to the future.
And if you stuck around for the post-credits scene, you will know that unequivocally invovles Deadpool’s pal Cable. Deadpool and Cable sounds like a fantastic film that wouldn’t overwhelm people too quickly. Cable himself is a complex character and could do with a duo-teamup before joining an ensemble. His powers involve inevitably turning into a cyborg and time travel, and while this awesome, it may confuse casual moviegoers.
Years down the line, after this next trilogy of core X-Men films, Cable would be perfect for a standalone feature. The character of Hope Summers is extraordinary and her epic adventures with Cable would translate to the screen seamlessly. He is an extraordinarily popular figure in the comics but his origins need to be done right!
If Deadpool and Cable does not happen X-Force will be the one to replace it. It’s been on the cards for a while and will certainly move ahead, but it’s just whether the narrative will include what the Deadpool and Cable movie would have been. X-Force was originally a seven member team of B-list characters lead by Cable but later included film characters Psylocke, Havok and Storm. It has the potential to look and feel like Suicide Squad but realistically, it’s more heroic than that. Unless Deadpool gets involved.
Simon Kinberg, the man running the X-Men/Fantastic Four shared universe at Fox, shared an interesting quote on X-Force.
“I think there are some stories that could be R-rated. I don’t know what they are, I mean I think the mainline X-Men movies have their own tone, which is a more operatic tone”, he said. “It’s more dramatic, it is more PG-13 in a way. X-Force I could see being R-rated, and who knows?”
For a man who is essentially the Kevin Fiege of Fox, this is a serious development. Between the success of Deadpool and Daredevil, is looks like a wave of R-rated films are on their way.
