It’s been a couple of weeks since the Disney/Fox deal was announced and there’s still a lot we don’t know. One of the biggest question marks surrounds the statuses of the various in-development superhero projects at Fox. That being, the general future of the X-Universe, what’s going on with Channing Tatum’s Gambit and Noah Hawley’s planned Doctor Doom (among many others).
It would seem that it’s not just us fans who’re being kept in the dark, either, as not even the creative teams behind these projects know what the future looks like. Noah Hawley (creator of Fargo and Legion) was set to write and direct the Doctor Doom pic and was asked about its status in a recent interview with Collider. Unfortunately, however, he didn’t have much to offer up.
“I haven’t had a single conversation yet about Doom in the context of the merger. On some level, we’re still looking at a period of time – probably a year, at the least – for this whole thing to go through. Who knows, corporately, what conversations will be had, but certainly, until it goes through, it’s not a legal thing. I don’t know. I’ve been waiting for the phone to ring to see if anyone is gonna have an opinion. Otherwise, it’s just business as usual for me.”
It’s a tricky situation for any creative involved in Fox’s superhero projects. After all, while the deal’s been announced, Disney aren’t going to officially acquire Fox’s properties for at least a year, and the vagaries of business mean there’s a chance (however small) that the whole thing could be called off due to competition laws. Drew Goddard is in a similar situation to Hawley, too, as he’s set to write and direct an X-Force movie (bringing together characters from Deadpool and various other mutants), which is work and planning that has a very real chance of winding up in the trash.
While the X-Universe has had its ups and downs, Fox have at least demonstrated a willingness to expand what a superhero film can be, from the gritty neo-Western Logan, to parodic Deadpool and the beautifully surreal bad trip that’s Legion. That last one, in particular, was so great that it’d be a real shame if Hawley’s take on Doctor Doom never made it to screens. Let’s hope that Disney and Marvel Studios recognize that there’s strength in cinematic diversity, and not everything has to be a PG-13 tonally similar blockbuster.