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X-Men Producer Confirms Franchise is On Hold After Disney Took Over


The Fox/Disney merger is set to finalize this year, and a lot of fans are curious as to what will happen to the movies in the X-franchise that had been planned before the acquisition. According to X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner, several projects have been put on hold.

Donner tells Collider:

"Everything is on hold, since Disney took over. I, frankly, took a step back after Deadpool, so I wasn't front and center, at all, for Apocalypse or New Mutants or Simon Kinberg's Dark Phoenix. He took over, but these were things that I put in place. With Gambit, certainly, it's too bad that it's taking so long because I really wanted to see that. It's such a great character. But, let's see. Let's hope so."

While everything is on hold, Donner does seem very positive about the direction Marvel head Kevin Feige will take the franchise. Feige was her protégé, and she believes that he already has an idea of where to take the characters in the MCU. Donner continues:

"Right now, it's all in Disney's hands. We don't know what they're gonna do. Now, it goes to Kevin Feige, who was my protégé. He and I started X-Men together, so I do trust him, not only based on knowing him and knowing how he knows the story so well, but on pure evidence."

This year, Fox is said to be ending the main X-timeline with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. After that, we'll see the release of The New Mutants, and it's likely that the movie will be the last we see of that universe. We know some Deadpool sequels and spinoffs are happening, but it might be best to bring them over to the MCU already. It's a good thing they didn't connect too strongly with the main franchise.

Hopefully, we get an official update from Marvel sooner within the year. Catch Dark Phoenix in theaters June 7.

See Also: X-Men: Dark Phoenix Test Screenings Reactions Have Not Been Good

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