There were a number of questions facing the X-Men franchise after the release of last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse. One of the biggest sticking points, however, was the fact that the film marked the end of the initial contracts signed with Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, and Nicholas Hoult back when they first joined X-Men: First Class. The casting of these promising talents for that 2011 film proved incredibly fortuitous, as 20th Century Fox eventually had some of the biggest and best actors in the world in their X-Men franchise. But given how busy they’ve all gotten, it was unclear whether they’d re-up their contracts after Apocalypse and continue on, or step away from the series for good.
The franchise itself also hit a crossroads. While X-Men: Days of Future Past was received positively by critics and fans alike, Apocalypse was met with a more muted response. Moreover, Fox had the massively successful Deadpool on its hands, and was sending Hugh Jackman off into the sunset with Logan. If ever there was a time for reinvention, this was it.
Fox recently set release dates for Deadpool 2—which will eventually lead to a full X-Force movie—as well as the young-skewing spinoff New Mutants, but the studio also confirmed that the main X-Men franchise will continue with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which will explore the Dark Phoenix story arc with Sophie Turner’s interpretation of the character.
But with the original quartet be back? Speaking recently on Josh Horowitz’s podcast Happy Sad Confused, Fassbender seemed to confirm that he’ll be reprising his role as Magneto when asked if we can expect to see him in any of these future X-Men movies:
“Possibly. Yeah, likely.”
When asked if he’s in New Mutants or Dark Phoenix, the actor seemed to playfully hint he’ll be in the latter, but his cageyness suggests that contract negotiations may still be ongoing. Still, it sounds like Fassbender is interested in continuing on, which is a big get for Fox.
Simon Kinberg, the writer/producer on these most recent X-Men movies, is eyeing the director’s chair on Dark Phoenix but hasn’t yet been confirmed. With a November 2018 release date looming, however, we should expect to hear much more about the film soon. For now, it certainly sounds like at least Fassbender will probably be back, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some combination of McAvoy, Hoult, and Lawrence also return.
