Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, The X-Men characters are some of the most famous and recognizable heroes the world over, and at the turn of the 21st Century the first X-Men movie, along with Blade two years prior, helped kick-start a new boom in superhero movies. The X-Men film franchise went on to span 13 movies including seven in the main series, three Wolverine spin-offs, two Deadpool films, and a New Mutants movie. The series is the eighth highest-grossing film series of all time and has grossed over $6 billion worldwide. Since the Bryan Singer and the cast of the original movie from 2000 helped launch comic book movies to massive popularity, the franchise has run for 20 years, concluding with the release of the long-delayed New Mutants in 2020.
In 2017, Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, which meant that Marvel Studios gained the rights back to X-Men and could incorporate them into the MCU. While Marvel has teased plans for a new project focused on mutants, nothing concrete has been set, although it appears to be something audiences know is coming. With the confirmed appearance of Patrick Stewart in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, likely reprising his role as Professor Xavier from Fox's X-Men movies, it is likely the X-Men characters will be arriving sooner rather than later.
However, before Disney purchased Fox, the studio had major plans for the X-Men film series and was planning a number of projects to expand the franchise into its own interconnected universe that could rival the MCU. For a while there, the X-Men was the most popular comic series at Marvel, meaning the series had multiple spin-off comics and vast character backgrounds to draw from, so it made sense that Fox would try and grow their franchise by looking to various corners of the X-Men universe. These are the various canceled X-Men movies that Fox never made.
X-Men Origins: Magneto
Following X-Men: The Last Stand, Fox originally planned to continue the X-Men franchise with spin-off films telling the origin story of the most popular characters. The first up was X-Men Origins: Wolverine but the other major one in development was X-Men Origins: Magneto. The film was going to tell the early life of Erik Lencher and his journey into becoming Magneto, and was pitched as The Pianist meets X-Men. In 2007, the writer of all three Blade films (and director of the third), David S. Goyer, was hired to direct the film. Ian McKellen was expected to reprise his role as Magneto in scenes that would bookend the film with a younger actor cast for the rest of the movie.
However, a combination of the 2007-2008 writers strike and the poor reaction to X-Men Origins: Wolverine caused Fox to scrap the entire X-Men Origins plan, and instead elements from the Magneto script were incorporated into the script for X-Men: First Class.
X-Men/Fantastic Four/Daredevil/Deadpool
In 2010, Zack Stenz and Ashley Edward Miller, having previously written a draft of the script for X-Men: First Class, were brought on board by 20th Century Fox to write a top-secret film that would unite the various Marvel superhero characters that the studio owned the film rights to: The Fantastic 4, X-Men, Daredevil and Deadpool. Details about the movie were never revealed until Disney purchased 20th Century Fox.
Drawing heavily from the comic Civil War, the basic plot involved the government introducing a superhero registration act after a fight with the villain Molecule Man and the Human Torch going supernova in the middle of New York. This caused a divide between the various heroes, featuring multiple fights through the film, and with the planned movie ending with the various sides coming together and the tease of the Super Skrull in a future film. The project almost secured director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum). However, between the success of X-Men: First Class, the progress being made on X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Fox losing the rights to Daredevil, the project was scrapped in favor of a Fantastic 4 reboot while also finally moving forward on the long-in-development Deadpool film.
Gambit
Probably the most high-profile X-Men movie to never happen, Gambit already had stars attached to it and various directors and release dates. Channing Tatum signed on to play the role in 2014, with the film planning to release on October 7, 2016, which was also the same year as Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse, in what would be a year of X-Men. However, the film's release date would be pushed back multiple times as the movie had three different directors attached to it: Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean). Channing Tatum and co-producer Reid Caroline expressed interest in directing, but the studio did not want to trust it as their first feature film (the duo would later go on to direct the recently released Dog).
The film was pitched as an R-rated romantic comedy, and would have featured Gambit and the character Bella Donna Boudreaux (with both Léa Seydoux and Lizzy Caplan considered for the role) and would have featured the villain Mr. Sinister. The plot was described as a crime movie in New Orleans, and while it was aiming for a more adult style similar to Deadpool, one thing that always held up the movie's development was the budget, as the studio and creators could not come to an agreement. The movie was officially taken off the release schedule and canceled by 20th Century Fox following the Disney acquisition; however, Tatum has expressed interest in reviving the project within the MCU, so there is always hope.
X-Men: Fear the Beast
Beast, real name Hank McCoy, is one of the original X-Men from the comics. While the character did not appear on film until X-Men: The Last Stand, he became one of the most featured characters thanks to his appearances in the four prequel films, where he was played by Nicholas Hoult. Byron Burton, the former assistant to X-Men: Apocalypse composer John Ottman (who also edited the film), pitched him a story for a Beast solo film. While Ottman was originally hesitant, he joined the project after Burton got him a script within two weeks, and the two worked on the project together as a potential $90 million film titled X-Men: Fear the Beast.
The basic premise involved Hank's serum struggling to keep his Beast form at bay, and he has been working alongside a scientist with a similar mutation, Dr. Paul Cartier, who would later be revealed as the villainous Wendigo. The film would end with a team-up between Beast and Wolverine (who Professor X helps find) as the two fight the Wendigo, with a tease at the end setting up the villain Mr. Sinister who was planned to be villain across multiple X-Men films.
Due to Beast and Wolverine being major X-Men movie characters, the script needed to be approved by X-Men: Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg, who was the key architect of Fox's X-Men universe. Kinberg politely declined to read the script as he did not want his own plans to be influences, and bringing Wolverine into the film would have muddied everything. This one actually got pretty far in development. Ottman expressed interest in directing the film, and while the plan was reworked multiple times, the project did not get off the ground before Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
X-23
Logan marked the end of Hugh Jackman's tenure as Wolverine, but the movie introduced another popular mutant and one of the strongest X-Men characters in the franchise in the form of Laura aka X-23 (Dafne Keene), who takes over the role of Wolverine in the comics. It appeared at one point that the plan was for Laura to fill a similar role in the X-Men film franchise, as Logan director James Mangold said he was developing a script for an X-23 spin-off film. The characters' original creator, Craig Kyle, was brought on board to help develop the script, but no word on the project has been made since 2018 and the project is more than likely scrapped after the 20th Century Fox acquisition by Disney.
Multiple Man
One of the odder decisions was the announcement of a film based around the character Multiple Man. The character has the ability to self-duplicate and was a prominent member of the team X-Factor. The character was previously shown in X-Men: The Last Stand and played by Eric Dane, but the planned solo film was set to star James Franco who would also co-produce the project alongside X-Men producer Simon Kinberg. Wonder Woman screenwriter Allan Heinberg was announced as the film's writer. No word has been made about the movie since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, but with multiple sexual assault allegations that have been charged at James Franco, it is safe to assume this project is dead.
Kitty Pryde
Announced in 2018, an X-Men movie about Kitty Pryde seemed like an attempt to appear that everything was still running at Fox if by some chance the Disney acquisition did not go through, but the possibility of the film always seemed slim. The film was set to be based on the popular X-Men character and had secured famed comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis to pen the screenplay and Deadpool director Tim Miller to helm the project, and was rumored to be called 143. No word on if Elliot Page, who played Kitty Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past, would reprise the role of if the character would be recast. Given Kitty Pryde is one of the most famous X-Men characters, Pryde is probably one of the top priorities for Marvel Studios when it comes to rebooting the X-Men.
X-Force
One of the longest in-development X-Men film projects was X-Force, as it was first announced in 2013 with Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow signed on to direct. The film was originally planned for release in 2017 and concept art for it showcased the film's team consisting of Cable, Domino, Thunderbird, Cannonball, and Feral. In 2017, Wadlow appeared to have left the project and Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds was set to co-write the story with filmmaker Joe Carnahan (who almost directed a Daredevil reboot for 20th Century Fox before the rights reverted to Marvel Studios). X-Force was likely to feature Deadpool, and Josh Brolin has signed on to play Cable in Deadpool 2. Later in 2017, it was announced that Drew Goddard, who had previously been attached to direct the planned Sinister Six spin-off, would helm the project.
X-Force appeared in Deadpool 2 as a big set-piece joke, with the team being introduced only to all die horrific deaths. Yet with both Cable and Domino, played by Zazie Beetz, in Deadpool 2, it appeared the door was left open for another version of the team to lead the film. However, the film was a victim to the 20th Century Fox purchase by Disney, as the X-Force was canceled in 2019 before the release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which marked the end of the Fox X-Men franchise. While the future of the film franchise is full of possibility, with X-Men MCU talks long and ongoing, the slate of films that were planned hint at a fascinating look at what road the Fox series could have gone down, and what it could have grown into.