The film’s release on DVD this month brings the current chapter in the X-Men franchise to a close, and while nothing has been confirmed just yet, the next time we can expect to hear from the promotional machine will surely be when news of a new X-Men film finally leaks out. But success is fragile. Another bad film could cause the franchise’s resurgence to falter, and it’s not easy to outdo expectations once they’ve been raised. For every The Dark Knight, there’s an Iron Man 2. The Wolverine The film most likely to happen next is, of course, the long-awaited Wolverine sequel. Although it’s been subjected to more delays than a space shuttle launch, there’s finally a script in place and a director – James Mangold – ready to take it on. As soon as Hugh Jackman finishes with Les Miserables, shooting can begin, and production should properly begin in Spring 2012. With a plot that pits Wolverine against the Japanese underworld and vying for the affections of a crime bosses daughter, it’s perfect material for a movie. Of course, hilarious cameo aside, it’s debatable what, if anything, Wolverine has to do with the current incarnation of the X-Men. It’s possible – though not entirely likely – that the film could be a prequel to the original X-Men movies and feature members of the First Class cast in some capacity. But let’s face it – at this point, the last thing a Wolverine movie needs is greater ties to continuity.First Class 2 Politically, the sixties offers plenty of opportunity for allegorical backdrops, from the Vietnam war to the Civil Rights movement to the increased visibility of alternative lifestyles. Vaughn has already suggested that the sequel could open with Magneto being shown as the man responsible for the Kennedy Assassination. Also confirmed are plans to add ‘one more character’ to the mix – a villain who can go toe-to-toe with Magneto in a role similar to Sebastian Shaw’s in the first. It’s hard to think who that might be, but we’re at least hoping for Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr. Sinister – a long-lived mutant geneticist as intelligent as Magneto and Xavier (but with little interest in their respective philosophies) and one of the major villains that the franchise has yet to touch. And, if you’ll permit me a moment of fanboy speculation, it’s a choice that would conveniently lead to the use of Apocalypse in the third film… X-Men 4 Now that the franchise has been brought back from the brink of x-tinction (ho ho!), there have been rumblings that now is the time to do a true sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand. If First Class 2 takes a while to get off the ground and The Wolverine takes yet another dive, it’s possible that this could come next (albeit a long shot). One of the producers of the previous X-Men movies, Lauren Shuler Donner, claims that the film is in “active development” at Fox following their acceptance of the latest treatment. Story-wise, we’ve only been told one thing about the idea being pitched: that the X-Men 4 story will lead into X-Men 5. Donner has, in the past, expressed an interest in doing Days of Future Past, the seminal alternate-future X-Men storyline, but at this point it really is wide open. Something Else?The X-Men franchise seems to have as many unproduced spin-offs as it does produced films. The disappointing box office and commercial performance of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has made any more solo prequels an unlikely prospect, and besides which, story elements planned for X-Men Origins: Magneto and X-Men Origins: Emma Frost were incorporated into X-Men: First Class. All it’s going to take is for one of those guys to co-star in one big hit action movie, and they could find themselves on a fast-track to their own X-Men spin-off. And hey, when True Blood eventually finishes, Anna Paquin’s going to need something to do with her time… X-Men: First Class is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.
