4 Possibilities for Deadpool and Gambit
2016 is apparently the year of opportunity for Fox’s Marvel movies. Not only will they be releasing the highly and rightly anticipated X-Men: Apocalypse but also the solo projects Deadpool and Gambit. Say whatever you want about those characters, but it’s nice when the movies try something beyond Wolverine, even after so-so performances. Plus, if either of those films is successful, we have to be prepared for them for the next three years. With that in mind, here are the basic paths for the characters in the future.
The Sequel
The go-to follow-up of a successful film. If Deadpool or Gambit just doesn’t flop, odds are Fox will kickstart the sequel before people finally get tired of the same hero. With years of comic-book material, never mind the quality, the movie company’s sure to find something that appears decent enough for a sequel for this whole process to start over again.
Sure, none of this process keeps in mind that Deadpool’s pretty tiresome on his own or that Gambit’s not the clear favorite they make him out to be, but that never matters to Fox when making movies. Not to mention, there will always be Marvel’s success story with Guardians of the Galaxy and their willingness to take on Black Panther and Captain Marvel that gives people the incentive to try new characters. Now if only they could work on making them good.
An Appearance
X-Men: Apocalypse comes out right in the middle of Deadpool and Gambit in the more promising month of May. Granted, everyone knows the priority is Apocalypse, but that movie would be a good time to remind people that all these characters are all X-Men. If Apocalypse is truly the world-ending end-all it says it is, it shouldn’t be hard to at least reference the characters, even if most of the movie takes place in the eighties. And before people go on about the technicalities with Deadpool and Gambit’s roles in other movies, please remember that Days of Future Past literally erased The Last Stand. They wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that happened in this series.
I’ll give you that both actors have not committed to appearing, and people have outright said the Gambit won’t be in Apocalypse. Of course, this is also the series that gave random reappearances from Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Beast even though they were supposed to be dead. The bottom line is that no doesn’t always mean no when it comes to appearing in movies. Plus, they have to prove this series has legs after so-called Apocalypse.
X-Force
Something I really hope that happens, both characters could feature together in an X-Force movie. The series will have to look another direction for characters anyway. Whether it’s the New Mutants or the X-Force, we’re bound to get a new group of mutants, and the new spin-off characters would have to meet each other eventually. Still, if it’s going to be any group, it’s going to be the X-Force because of one thing: Cable.
Cable and Deadpool have a long history together in an ongoing series with Deadpool’s humor bouncing well off of Cable’s post-apocalyptic attitude. If there was a Deadpool sequel, it’d have to feature Cable anyway based on their adventures. Gambit may not be involved with them as much in the comics, but weirder things have happened than grouping mutants together, like killing Darwin (which I still haven’t forgiven First Class for). If Fox really wanted the push the movie series, it would quickly set-up the X-Force to get the stories back to what they’re really good at: working as a team.
Give Up
This is more wishful thinking. If either movie’s good, there will probably be a sequel set the next day. If it’s terrible, it will be buried faster than you can say The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Those are things I can’t control, but it’s apparently really hard to convince people that characters from a series called “X-MEN” work better together rather than putting out individual movies. Sure, other characters are there, but… it’s not a team. It’s people just reacting.
Without worrying about Gambit or Deadpool, Fox could actually move onto other groups like X-Force or the New Mutants or take a chance on storylines featuring things like Cable and the Messiah Complex storyline. Those things can’t really happen if people are focused on the eighteenth Wolverine appearance. Just please don’t let any character turn into the new Wolverine.
This last part should probably go unsaid, but I and a bunch of other fans, I’m sure, would just be glad to get a good film at this point. The few things Fox seems to do right are the X-Men, and no one wants another Fant4stic. If they manage to do better than Fantastic Four, that would be a good, if somewhat bittersweet, accomplishment.
