The Wolverine cometh...but then what?
The new Wolverine movies is now only a couple of weeks away and my only hope is that overall it's better than the third X-Men movie; that flick was fun but obviously hamstrung by the pre-production exodus of Bryan Singer. I'll grant a pass on that because at least Russia's favorite son Piotr Rasputin got some screen time. So this next movie is all about telling Wolverine's origin and finally bringing to life Deadpool, Gambit, and a believable Sabertooth. After this we know that a Magneto origin movie is in the works which I think is a fantastic ideas because any time a Jew gets to put a holy hell beatdown on some Nat-zis, well that's just good cinema.
Now the buzz around the water cooler (and by water cooler I mean the comment section of an IGN article on this very subject) is what the next X-movie might focus on. Which X-character has the depth to carry an entire movie, the existing fan base to support the project, and enough appeal to bring in the general movie-going public?
Since introducing Wade Wilson in the upcoming Wolverine flick I think a Deadpool movie has the most potential to be successfully adapted to the big screen and spawn sequels. I especially like the idea of making Wade's story somewhat of a black comedy. Ryan Reynold's has pretty much been playing this role his entire career and I think it's the perfect casting combination similar to Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark.
A better idea than focusing just on Professor X's origin would be to break out some kind of New Mutants storyline. That way they could introduce fan favorites like Cannonball, Doug Ramsey/Warlock and Sunspot while bringing back in under utilized characters like Kitty Pryde and Colossus. The real question in that movie is should Professor X be included or should a different headmaster be used? That sets up a possible power struggle/showdown between someone like Storm and Emma Frost; both champions of mutantkind but with differing philosophies of what role mutants should have in the world.
The X-franchise has been a great money maker for Fox so unless both origin movies tank hard there will definitely be more mutants on the big screen, I'm just genuinely curious as to who that might be.