As I'm sure all of you know, just because Marvel has seen insane rewards on their ballsy plan to build a cinematic universe with The Avengers doesn't mean that they're able to play with every toy in the proverbial sandbox. 20th Century Fox still owns some cinematic rights to certain properties, and that studio has hired Mark Millar as their own sort of Whedon-esque figure who will theoretically guide them into a new way of doing things with those comic book properties.
The Kick-Ass creator spoke with Empire about his duties at Fox, but couldn't get into too many details:
Fox are thinking, ‘We’re sitting on some really awesome things here. There is another side of the Marvel Universe. Let’s try and get some cohesiveness going.’ So they brought me in to oversee that really. To meet with the writers and directors to suggest new ways we could take this stuff and new properties that could spin out of it.
OK, pretty standard so far. It's plain to see that Fox has dollar signs in its eyes after The Avengers became the third highest grossing film of all time, and it looks like they're trying to set up their own separate Marvel Universe. How about the X-Men, specifically?
The X-Men feels like a universe by itself; there’s so many characters and so many great potential spin-off characters. They asked me to come in and work out a plan, so unfortunately at this point I can’t get too specific. I DO have a three to four year plan of where things could go, but you know, I’ll be working with guys like Matthew and Josh Trank (the new director of ‘Fantastic Four’) and just figuring out how everything can work together and not contradict each other.
But I also don’t want to make it too much of a mess either, with everyone showing up in everyone else’s films. What my dream is, as a fan, is that when you go and see any Marvel movie that it feels as if they’re all taking place in the one universe like in the comics.
Notice that he mentions "Matthew" in his discussion. He's referring to Matthew Vaughn, who was previously attached to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past, but who stepped back to a producer on that film while Bryan Singer slid into the director's chair. Seems like all of them are going to be working together, and if Millar's three or four year plan is executed well enough, it's very plausible that we could start to feel like all of the Fox Marvel films are occupying a separate universe (and probably one that's a bit more sinister in tone than the folks at Disney would like).
Are you excited about the possibility of more spin-offs and crossovers on the Fox side of the Marvel Universe?