Next X-MEN Film Will Be as Bold and Radical as LOGAN and DEADPOOL, Simon Kinberg Also Talks Future R-Ratings
It looks like the success of Deadpool and Logan has lit a fire under Fox's ass. It's kind of funny that Fox dragged their feet on these rated R comic book movies for so long because they didn't think anyone would see them. Well, now they know that's not the case.
In a recent interview with /Film, X-Men movie franchise writer and producer Simon Kinberg talked about the next X-Men film that he's in the running to direct. He also discussed the future R-ratings in the franchise. The first thing he talked about was the next X-Men film and he clarified that it will not be called X-Men: Supernova:
“It’s not called Supernova. One of the things we do when we make these X-Men movies, to be totally candid, is — any of these movies, it’s on Star Wars, too — is you come up with fake names to throw people off the scent and when you’re out making the movie, the signs that show you where the locations are say 'Nova,' or whatever the fake title is, and people figure it out, and I don’t even know why we do it anymore."
He added that this next X-Men film will be as bold and radical as Deadpool and Logan:
“But at any rate, it’s not called Supernova. That was the code name for it. There’s yet another code name now. What I can tell you is that we’re in early stages of prep on it, and that it’s something that Hutch [Parker] and I specifically have been talking about, as the producers of it and me as the writer of it, since post-production on Apocalypse, what the story would be and how would do something bold and radical and expand the universe in the same way that Logan feels bold and radical and certainly Deadpool does as well. And that’s where we are with it.”
He wouldn't confirm or deny of the next film would focus on the Dark Phoenix story arc, which has been previously rumored, but he did say, "I think if we were to make a Dark Phoenix movie in the future, it would be a Dark Phoenix movie about her struggle and really should be the A plot and the primary of the movie."
Kinberg also discussed the ratings of the future X-Men films, saying it all depends on the story. If the story requires an R-rating then they will move forward with the development with the R-rating. He said:
"I think that each movie, we figure out what the story is, then we figure out the requirements of the story, and if the requirements of the story are R-rated, it’s R-rated. We don’t go into movies saying, this one’s gonna be R-rated, this one’s gonna be PG-13, we don’t make those decisions before we make the decisions of story. My instinct is that the Deadpool universe, which is Deadpool 2 and potentially X-Force, they require being R-rated, because that’s just Deadpool’s voice in the comic, and it’s Deadpool’s voice in the movie so far. I think audiences would be disappointed if they got a PG-13 Deadpool movie. So my easy bet would be Deadpool 2 is R-rated and most movies within that sort of shared but separate universe would be likewise.
That's good to hear because there was a time when Fox was forcing these movies to be PG-13. At least now they are doing what's natural for the character and for the adaptation, and it doesn't seem like the studio is going to fight that anymore.