When Hugh Jackman retires his version of Wolverine next March, that may not be the only thing Fox sends out to pasture. A new report claims that Fox is mulling over a complete, from-scratch reboot of their X-Men films. 

The Hollywood Reporter is hearing from its sources that a perfect storm has been created over at Fox that has the studio thinking it might be time for a serious X-Men overhaul. Here are some key elements to consider, if you’re Fox:

• The franchise was dealt some serious blows to the body that it’s never fully recovered from, in the form of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Their initial attempts at softly rebooting the franchise (X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past) did well, but then X-Men: Apocalypse came out and made $200 million less worldwide and got a fairly dismal reaction from fans and critics alike
• The most reliable and bankable X-Men star (Jackman) is leaving
• Gambit was delayed, with Doug Liman leaving
• Deadpool 2 is delayed, with Tim Miller leaving
• The contracts for Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and James McAvoy have all come to an end

When you put all that together, it’s not hard to see why Fox would be considering making major changes in their plans.

THR says that changes are already being made when you consider that Bryan Singer will not be back for the next installment in the proper X-Men franchise, and that- according their sources- Simon Kinberg is already working on a script that would “reconfigure” the series.

What’s notable about this supposed script Kinberg’s working on is that, according to THR, he’s still trying to work Fassbender, McAvoy, and Lawrence into the story. 

That would imply that Kinberg’s hopeful that another “soft reboot” could be the answer to Fox’s prayers. One could easily argue that they’ve already tried the soft approach, and so they should probably just hit the Reset button.

We’ve reached out to Mr. Kinberg, and we’ll let you know if/when he responds to our questions.

What is clear, though, is that Fox has a good reason to be considering making sweeping changes. Thankfully for them, Logan might help them convey to audiences that they’re bringing the current continuity to an end. Also working in their favor is that Deadpool is so meta, and so groundbreaking, that the Ryan Reynolds-led mini-franchise could actually survive a hard reboot and actually comment on it in Deadpool 2.

So Fox has definitely got options here.

One last thing from the THR story is that Fox’s planned The New Mutants movie could also help the studio out as it reconfigures the future of the X-Men franchise.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if whatever this reboot becomes doesn’t include a backdoor way to get it connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now that Doctor Strange has blown open the doors for alternate dimensions and realities, Fox and Marvel Studios can have legitimate talks about how to get everyone on the same page. But that’s just me speculating.

Stay tuned for updates if we get a response from Kinberg!

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter