This year may turn out to be a groundbreaking time for the superhero movie genre, a year in which an R-rated superhero comedy breaks box office records, a Batman movie underperforms and Spider-Man – after an unexpected deal between Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios – moved to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It seems as though anything could be possible… including a crossover between the X-Men and the Avengers.
I know, I know, we thought it would never happen too. And it still might not, but an X-Men producer is now publicly talking about a collaboration between 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios as if it would be a genuinely good idea. Perhaps the days of one studio staking a claim to their heroes and refusing to interact with the other franchises will soon be over, if producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Apocalypse, Deadpool) has his way.
Also: Most Craved Interviews The Writers of Deadpool (Exclusive Video)
I spoke to Simon Kinberg and Deadpool director Tim Miller earlier today at a press junket for the upcoming Deadpool Blu-ray release on May 10, and I joked that the Sony/Marvel deal was a potential watershed moment that could lead to an epic crossover between Deadpool and Gwenpool. They laughed the idea off. “No,“ said Miller, and then he took the conversation in a different direction.
Marvel Comics
“But I would love to, someday, in part, heal the rift between the world of X-Men and the world of Avengers,“ Tim Miller added.
“I think we all would,“ Simon Kinberg continued. “And I think there’s so much crossover in the comic it would be neat to see those characters one day share a movie.”
In the clip below, Tim Miller points out that he included a reference to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige – “Feige’s Famous Pizza” – in his movie Deadpool as a way to to “try and bring these worlds together.”
20th Century Fox
“Both of us are actually quite close with Kevin,“ Simon Kinberg says, “and have a profound amount of respect for what he does. And it would be fun to all team up one day, somehow, together, if that could work.”
Now again, this is anything BUT an announcement. It’s probably just Simon Kinberg floating the idea out there, but the fact that he’s willing to do even that is significant. For years, a sense of competition has emerged from 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios has been bubbling. The X-Men were Marvel’s flagship characters for years, but since superhero movies became a dominant box office force – and since Fox has been firmly holding onto the rights to the characters – the mutants have been increasingly marginalized in the comics themselves. A crossover film, even though many fans have been clamoring for that, has seemed like an utter impossibility due to studio politics.
But if the producer of the X-Men movies is now calling the idea “fun,” and saying “we all would” like to see them team up, maybe it’s not so impossible after all.
Check out the clip from our upcoming interview with Tim Miller and Simon Kinberg, and come back in May to see the complete video with updates about Deadpool 2 and more.
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Eight Iconic Superhero Fights We Thought You Would Never See in a Movie:
Top Photo: CraveOnline.com
Eight Iconic Superhero Fights You Will Never See in a Movie
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Avengers vs. X-Men
Marvel's biggest superhero teams came to blows in the epic, multi-series crossover Avengers vs. X-Men (a.k.a. AvX) in 2012, but the two franchises are owned by different studios - Avengers at Disney, X-Men at Fox - and it's unlike they will ever want to share the profits on what could be the biggest movie ever produced.
Photo: Marvel
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Batman vs. Guy Gardner
Warner Bros. owns the rights to both Batman and Guy Gardner, Earth's jerkiest Green Lantern, but the odds that they'll actually put Gardner in a movie - especially when Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner are more popular - are pretty slim. So the iconic fight in which Batman took Guy out in a single punch will, sadly, probably never make it in front of the cameras.
Photo: DC
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Daredevil vs. Sub-Mariner
In one of the great early Marvel superhero fights, Sub-Mariner emerged from Atlantis to destroy humanity, and only Daredevil was around to stop him. Outmatched in every way, Daredevil fought until he collapsed. Sub-Mariner respected his fearlessness so much he figured humanity was worth sparing. Both characters are owned by Marvel, but the studio is still trying to get the rights to Sub-Mariner sorted out after the character was originally optioned by Universal.
Photo: Marvel
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The Hulk vs. The Thing
The strongest, most misunderstood monsters in the Marvel Universe have a long and storied history of beating the crap out of each other. Who is strongest? Who is toughest? We may never know in live-action, since Fox owns the rights to Fantastic Four and Marvel's got The Hulk under their own banner.
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Marvel vs. DC
It took decades for Marvel and DC to set aside their differences long enough for a comic book crossover between their competing superhero universes, and it will probably be at least that long before Marvel Studios and Warner Bros. seriously consider letting Batman fight Captain America, Superman fight Thor, and so on and so forth.
Photo: Marvel and DC
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Superboy vs. Superboy Prime
The teenaged clone of Superman and Lex Luthor repeatedly fought an alternate reality Superboy who was a dangerously insane mass murderer. Yeah, even though Warner Bros. obviously owns both Superboy and Superboy Prime, the odds that we'll ever see their weird, epic, head-exploding battle on the big screen are extremely low.
Photo: DC
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Superman vs. Muhammad Ali
Aliens have challenged Earth's mightiest champion, but when Superman steps forward, the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali points out that he's not really from Earth. So they fight to prove who is truly the greatest, and sure enough, Muhammad Ali kicks Superman's ass (in all fairness, the hero's powers were deactivated, and he put up a good fight). But it seems highly unlikely that Warner Bros. will decide to send Superman back in time to fight Ali in his prime, doesn't it?
Photo: DC
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Wolverine vs. Anyone Cool
In the Marvel Comics, fighting Wolverine is like a rite of passage. He's had iconic tussles with The Hulk, Captain America and Spider-Man, and was thrown head-to-head against any rookie hero that the publisher wanted to prove was a badass. But Wolverine is owned by Fox, who only have the rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. We will probably never see Wolverine fight an Avenger in a live-action movie, and that sucks.
Photo: Marvel
