The Four Color Media Monitor

But there's good reason to estimate at least two of them wouldn't work anyway. We Got This Covered brings word of rumors some film adaptation projects were canned as Disney works on a buyout of the Fox film studio:

...the various spinoff movies planned for Gambit, Doctor Doom, Silver Surfer, Kitty Pryde and Multiple Man have all been shelved. And while this report has yet to be confirmed, it would genuinely surprise us if any of these projects saw the light of day at this stage, at least in the forms that Fox intended.

Out of all those movies, the only one with a release date set is Gambit, which was said to be headed for cinemas on March 13th, 2020. Nonetheless, the fans have long had their doubts that the film would actually make that deadline, especially in light of the various delays that the project has already faced. Back in October, producer Simon Kinberg even felt the need to address the public’s skepticism towards the project, telling the doubters via Collider, “I share your cynicism generally, but in this particular case we’re working very hard to get the movie going.”

Well considering how much attention gets lavished upon villains like Doom in this day and age, that's why it'd be better there be no movie starring the Fantastic Four's prime adversary. I hesitate to think of what if a villain like Annihilus got a film. And as for Gambit, while it's obviously not a fictional character's fault he was badly developed nearly 3 decades ago when he first debuted, I don't think a film project spotlighting him would work out well in light of the dreadful stories he was swamped in back in the day. The mid-90s "revelation" he played a part in the Morlock massacre was an abomination that should never have been. If that's still kept canon, and hasn't been jettisoned, no wonder a movie wouldn't work well when you have something awful like that hanging overhead.

As for a Silver Surfer movie, I know it may have been planned for over a dozen years, but it's clear at this point it's gotten nowhere, and they probably don't know what to do with the material. Films starring Kitty and Madrox sound on paper like great ideas, but chances are they'd be royally screwed up too.

And with the comics medium in such decline already, that's one more reason why it's hard to look forward to even the more inspired projects. It's best these characters all be left alone.

Labels: Fantastic Four, marvel comics, women of marvel, X-Men