Fox achieved an improbable feat when it united the cast and characters of two very different real-world/fictional timelines in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Now they aim to bring two disparate teams together again, although if the rumor is true, the teams will be from different franchises. Sure, Fox owns the movie rights to Marvel's Fantastic Four and X-Men teams, so it's not quite as improbable as Marvel Studios' Spider-Man crossover with Sony. These days, it seems like anything goes.
Latino Review reports that Fox's untitled movie in 2018 will unite the Fantastic Four and X-Men franchises; which cast members that crossover entails remains to be seen. Surely this crossover is contingent on a number of things. Will Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot, due out this August 7th, be successful enough to stand on its own? Will the new cast of Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell catch on with audiences, making their June 9, 2017 sequel "highly anticipated" rather than one that simply exists?
Slightly less of an unknown is X-Men's cachet, which is still strong after the rebooted efforts of X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The 2016 Bryan Singer film X-Men: Apocalypse probably won't tank the franchise, but it could certainly set up a world in which its mutant heroes could conceivably run across their cosmic-ray cousins. While that film will feature returning actors Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult, there are quite a few new additions. We'll see young versions of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Jubilee (Lana Condor), and more. There's also the inclusion of Channing Tatum as Gambit in his own 2016 spin-off. Perhaps this team, which is rather similar to the 90s cartoon version of X-Men, will be the one to meet the equally youthful Fantastic Four in a crossover event.
The next question - after Fox answers whether or not the crossover plan even exists - is whether the X-Men and Fantastic Four will be working together, or if they will be in conflict. So far, the path most traveled seems to be one of establishing conflict between heroes before uniting them: Avengers learning to work together, the Avengers battling Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver before reaching an accord, and Batman v Superman leading into Justice League. Perhaps the 1987 Chris Claremont comicbook arc "Fantastic Four vs. the X-Men" will serve as inspiration for the crossover. Lots to speculate on with little of it confirmed, but perhaps Fox will shed some light at this year's San Diego Comic-Con.
