'X-Men' Producer Gives Update on Franchise's Future, New Wolverine, Gambit Movie
The "X-Men" franchise will continue to be in good hands.
After 20th Century Fox merges into Disney, the comic book franchise will stand alongside its Marvel siblings, which means it's likely Marvel studio boss Kevin Feige will take over its direction. And producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has worked on every "X-Men" film thinks that's a good thing.
"Kevin (Feige) and I started the first movie, he worked for me, he has a great story sense when it comes to weaving each world together, I trust him and I trust where he will take it,” Shuler-Donner told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour.
Shuler-Donner touched on a few "X-Men"-related topics, including the prospect of casting a new Wolverine to replace Hugh Jackman.
"YI don’t know what Kevin’s thinking honestly. I don’t even think Kevin knows. I think Kevin’s still dealing with this wealth of characters and trying to make sense of them," she said.
"Because Hugh, just the physicality of it all, just to bulk up ... This man worked so hard to bulk up, would get up at four in the morning to bulk and eat protein meals every two hours because his natural state, they used to call him Worm when he was a kid. So his natural state is a very skinny guy. Once you reach a certain age, the body just won’t go anymore. I think he was wise to say, ‘I’m at that point. I can’t do it.’ Now, that doesn’t mean he can’t come back as older Wolverine. You never know. Future Wolverine, you never know.”
Other projects still in development seem to be on hold, like the movie centered on Gambit, which "was going to be a heist movie," she said.
As for whether it'll ever see the light of day, "That is up to Disney. I hope so, but that’s up to them. The problem is you can’t have too many Marvel, X-Men superhero movies out there because we will cancel each other out. Each one has to be distinctive and yet you’ve got 'The Avengers' to follow through.
"You’ve got so many distinctive story canons to follow through and yet we want new ones, but I don’t think you can have more than four. Four is a lot because people are going to get sick of them so we have to be careful."