In February of last year, the character known only to hardcore marvel fans, Deadpool, got his own film. Making a film starring this kind of character already raised eyebrows, but then we found out that the film was going to be R-rated, and everyone thought ‘oh dear’. It then went on to gross 780 million dollars worldwide off of a budget of just 58 million dollars, and everyone thought ‘oh. Right.’
So this month the new Wolverine film Logan (which happens to be the first R-rated film of the character) hit cinemas and made $88 million in the USA on its opening weekend, a huge success. Although the previous Wolverine films (X-men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine) have received poor ratings of 38 and 69 percent respectively from critics, Logan currently sits at a 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, a website that shows average film ratings from critics and casual viewers. So, critically, Logan is also a huge success.
But what of the X-men films that Fox has distributed since 1999? Well, last year the fans received a mediocre film that was ultimately a box office bomb, making $500 million on a budget of $178 million. Yes, this is still a lot of money, but such a well-known franchise should have made $800 million, which is what it was predicted. And $300 million is also a lot of money! A shocking rating of 48% percent on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the lowest ratings for an X-Men film, has given us little hope in the successful continuation of the franchise.
But Fox is certainly not giving up (why would you, when there are millions of dollars involved?) and it has been confirmed that the next film will be called X-Men: Supernova. The title alone promises many exciting possibilities and provides the possibility of a space adventure for the mutant superhero team. However, both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart have officially stated that Logan was their last film portraying the characters of Wolverine and Professor Xavier after nearly two decades and many films of playing those characters. James McAvoy was cast as a younger professor X for the film X-men: First Class (2011) and the two X-men films since, but the question remains: who could ever play a better Wolverine than Hugh Jackman himself? The sooner we find out the better. The anticipation is killing me.
The next films in the franchise will be Deadpool 2 (2018), X-Men: Supernova (2018), X-Force (unknown), and X-Men: the New Mutants (not confirmed), so let’s hope they can get the main X-Men back on their feet!
Excelsior!
By Thomas, BSN
