The X-MEN And FANTASTIC FOUR Franchises Will Not Be Sharing A Universe

If you were hoping to be seeing superhero teams the Fantastic Four and the X-Men teaming up on the silver screen for an epic adventure we have some bad news for you. It is probably not going to happen.

Simon Kinberg, the writer/producer whom Twentieth Century Fox hired as a creative overseer for both of their Marvel Comics superhero franchises, has outlined the problems inherent in having the two franchises crossover much in the way Marvel Studios have interwoven their superhero franchises for their Avengers movies while speaking with ScreenCrush –

ScreenCrush: Do the Fantastic Four movie you wrote and the X-Men live in the same universe?

Simon Kinberg: Well, it’s complicated. Because none of the X-Men movies have acknowledged the notion of a sort of superhero team — the Fantastic Four. And the Fantastic Four acquire powers, so for them to live in a world where mutants are prevalent is kind of complicated, because you’re like, “Oh, you’re just a mutant.” Like, “What’s so fantastic about you?”

SC: “We have powers … just like that team down the street.”

SK: Right, right. Exactly, “So, I guess we’ll go to school now. We’ll go to Xavier’s school.” No, it is, they live in discrete universes.

I have to say that this news does not disappoint me. Then again I am not a Fox stockholder. It is always nice to see decisions being made for big tentpole franchises that are rooted more in creative concerns than business ones. And coming from Fox, the studio that gave us not one but two Alien V Predator films, this is rather surprising. It is nice to see that there is a saner head there is prevailing.

While I understand the temptation to mimic the way that Marvel Studios has run their franchises given that Marvel’s output has earned billions at the box office, there are more than one way for studios to run franchises. Kinberg’s statement comes as a bit of a surprise as most had assumed that his job was going to involve merging the two franchises at some point. It was something that the studio had been looking at for some time now. Perhaps its just a set up for the unveiling of some different plans for the two superhero series that will be equally impressive.