Rumor: X-MEN: APOCALYPSE and WOLVERINE 3 Will End Bryan Singer's X-MEN Movieverse
Take this one with a grain of salt, but scoop master El Mayimbe (who has left Latino Review and is apparently prepping a new site of his own) is reporting an unconfirmed rumor that X-Men: Apocalypse and the upcoming sequel to The Wolverine will be the final films in Bryan Singer's X-Men universe.
The point about Hugh Jackman makes this rumor sound legit to me, because I can easily see Singer and Jackman having a discussion about bringing this franchise to an end together (James Mangold is helming Wolverine 3, but still). Jackman has been the face of these movies for 15 years, and the idea of recasting someone to play Wolverine and interact with all of the already-established characters seems like a daunting one.
But at the same time, from 20th Century Fox's position, it doesn't make a ton of sense that they would just cut the cord on this universe they've spent years building. The studio has signed some of the hottest actors in Hollywood to headline this franchise (Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, etc.), but with Jackman bowing out and Apocalypse being Lawrence's last ride, they admittedly find themselves in the position of losing at least two of their biggest stars in the very near future. (I'm not sure about Fassbender, McAvoy, and Hoult's deals, but I assume they mirror Lawrence's.) Still, there's a lot of money to be made with these characters, and even with these hiccups, I find it a little tough to swallow that a studio would shut down the whole cinematic universe over this.
We already know that Deadpool takes place in Singer's X-Men universe, and with Channing Tatum's Gambit coming up, it just seems like a waste if he didn't interact with Sophie Turner and whoever else remains in the X-verse by the time we get to that film. I don't know, maybe now is as good a time as any to completely recast everything and start telling different stories with different versions of these characters. What do you all think?