We have entered an unusual phase in the X-Men franchise, a phase when the least interesting films in it are the ones with the words “X-Men” in them. Movies like Deadpool and Logan are filling fans with curiosity and wonder, off-beat television shows like Legion are turning heads, and yet last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse was considered one of the worst in the series and now, almost a year later, we suddenly seem to have noticed that Fox never officially announced the next official “X-Men” installment.
Also: The ‘Deadpool’ Writers Do The B-Movies Podcast!
But that doesn’t mean Fox is done with X-Men movies, nor does it mean – as many of us have hoped – that the studio is going to just admit that these films are built on a shaky foundation, and decide to reboot them altogether. Indeed, as of today we now know that plans are indeed underway to make a proper sequel to X-Men: Apocalypse, because series co-star Sophie Turner has said that she’s scheduled to start shooting it later this year.
“We’re about to start shooting the next X-Men,“ Sophie Turner told HeyUGuys. “We’ve just finished shooting Season 7 of [Game of] Thrones, and I’ve got a couple of movies to do before X-Men starts. And then we go on to Season 8.”
20th Century Fox
Also: Dear Fox: Just Reboot The X-Men Already (You Know You Want To)
Those are not uncertain terms. And while yes, plans change and even highly anticipated movies get scuttled shortly before production begins, the X-Men movies are one of the frilliest feathers in 20th Century Fox’s cap. This is probably going down.
The most recent films in the X-Men series have been catching up to the present day, decade by decade. X-Men: First Class took place in the 1960s, X-Men: Days of Future Past (mostly) took place in the 1970s, and X-Men: Apocalypse took place in the 1980s. The next film, as yet untitled, is expected to take place in the 1990s and – if it follows through on the promises of X-Men: Apocalypse (which is no guarantee in a series with as many plot holes and continuity errors as this one) – would likely focus on the “Dark Phoenix Saga,” in which Sophie Turner’s character Jean Grey becomes all-powerful and destructive. (Which is, of course, a plot point the series previously covered in X-Men: The Last Stand.)
The 10 (or 12) Best Movie Prequels Ever
Top Photo: 20th Century Fox
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The 10 (or 12) Best Movie Prequels Ever
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10. The Powerpuff Girls Movie
Set before the hit TV series, Craig McCracken's excellent animated movie added elements of tragedy to the heroes and their arch-enemy, Mojo Jojo, while piling on more action than ever before.
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
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9. Amityville II: The Possession
The prequel to the popular but stodgy Amityville Horror told a more shocking tale, filled with cruelty and perversion. It holds up even better than the original.
Photo: Orion Pictures
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8. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
In the years before Raiders of the Lost Ark, when Indiana Jones was more of a hired gun than a respectable archaeologist, he learned a valuable lesson about responsibility. He also bounded from one great action sequence to the next, with only a couple of subpar sidekicks holding his prequel back from total greatness.
Photo: LucasFilm
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7. X-Men: First Class
The origin of the X-Men was a brighter, more lively motion picture than the rest of the franchise. Set in the glamorous 1960s, and against a backdrop of idealism faltering against Cold War paranoia, X-Men: First Class was the genuinely classy.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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6. Monsters University
Pixar took a rather silly idea - a Revenge of the Nerds-like comedy, starring a younger Monsters Inc. cast - and elevated it to impressive heights. Few films, especially kids films, explore the idea of personal failure as potently as Monsters U.
Photo: Pixar
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5. Paranormal Activity 3
How do you keep a horror franchise about home video equipment fresh? Change the home video equipment. The Paranormal Activity prequel had to do the same tricks with different technology, forcing the filmmakers to get creative. The result were some of the scariest scares of the decade.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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4. Captain America: The First Avenger
The prequel to the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: The First Avenger harkened back to an old-fashioned sense of adventure, imbuing the whole franchise with a sense of heroic history, and forging a path to the future by introducing important ideas that would pay off in future installments.
Photo: Marvel Studios
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3. Fast & Furious, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6
The fourth, fifth and sixth Fast & Furious movies all took place in between 2 Fast 2 Furious and Tokyo Drift, making them one of the strangest prequels ever made. But also some of the best. Fast Five and Furious 6, in particular, solidified the franchise's winning formula, with a lovable ensemble cast, over the top action and soap opera melodramatics.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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2. The Godfather Part II
Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to the Oscar-winning The Godfather was half a sequel, and half a prequel, with the story of a father and son's rise to power playing out simultaneously. Some consider this to be the superior Godfather, but whether or not you agree it's some of the most stunning, ambitious filmmaking of the 1970s.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
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1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It doesn't entirely matter that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly precedes A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars more. All that matters is that Clint Eastwood is back in the morally unbalanced Old West, the pistols are flaring and the characters are unforgettable. Sergio Leone's masterpiece is one of the most vibrant motion pictures in history, a testament to the medium, and just as exciting today as it was fifty years ago.
Photo: United Artists
