FANTASY ISLAND Director Jeff Wadlow Reveals What He Had Planned For His X-FORCE Trilogy - EXCLUSIVE
Once upon a time, Blumhouse's Fantasy Island helmer Jeff Wadlow was attached to write and direct X-Force for Fox. Now, the filmmaker tells us what exactly he had planned for his amazing sounding trilogy...
Back in 2013, Jeff Wadlow was attached to write and direct an
X-Force movie for Fox. Fresh off
Kick-Ass 2, the filmmaker went straight to work on the Marvel movie, but years passed, and the release of
Deadpool seemingly changed plans at the studio.
Now, the filmmaker is promoting his new film
Blumhouse's Fantasy Island (which arrives in UK cinemas on March 6th). As a result, we recently caught up with the director to talk about his work on both that and X-Force, and he shed some light on what would have been a trilogy kicking off with the original version of the team before culminating in the version from Rick Remender's classic run!
We also asked whether he would be keen to work with Marvel Studios on the project, and you can probably guess his answer.
"Kevin Feige, if you're reading this, I will do anything at all to work on your version of the X-Men and X-Force. I'm a filmmaker because of 90s comics, so I obviously love them dearly, and it was actually a dream come true for me to write X-Force and meet Rob Liefeld. I loved doing it and would of course do anything to be part of whatever new iteration they have planned.
"What I can share about my take on the property (as it's not really relevant any more since Deadpool 2 introduced Cable, and I wrote X-Force before Deadpool 1 even came out), is that it asked if X-Men was about mutants who get to go to private school with Wolverine and Professor X, and have the Blackbird swooping down to pick them up, what about the mutants that have to go to public school? What about the ones who don't have the benefactor looking out for them, and what about the kids who have to figure it out on their own? We then would have introduced that darker, more militant mentor in the form of Cable.
"I plotted out this three movie arc that took X-Force from what it was in the 90s with Rob Liefeld with a band of kids fighting for what they believe in, and then by the third film, the group would have grown and changed and lost and picked up some new members, and basically turned into Rick Remender's version of the X-Force in the early 2000s. That was a much darker hit squad and black ops team who had lost their way over the course of the three films.
"They're plans which never came to fruition, but I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity to have just written the script."
It really does sound like Wadlow had something special planned for this fan-favourite team, but with no firm plan in place at Fox for its Marvel movies, it's no surprise that the X-Force team ended up being introduced in
Deadpool 2 ahead of a spinoff that would have likely been helmed by Drew Goddard.
The filmmaker had an ambitious plan for these characters, though, and while it's unclear what Marvel Studios has planned for mutants, a Wadlow helmed X-Force would definitely be a fitting addition to the MCU. We'll have more from the director for you later this week, but for now, check out the trailer for
Blumhouse's Fantasy Island in the player below!
DISCLAIMER: ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and...
[MORE]
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.