DARK PHOENIX producer Hutch Parker on the growing X-MEN film franchise.

Screen Rant had the chance to speak with X-MEN film producer Hutch Parker about the upcoming films in the ever-growing franchise. Next year will see the release of three films in the mutant universe, which include NEW MUTANTS, DEADPOOL 2 and DARK PHOENIX. Parker explains how they’re finding creative new ways of exploring their Marvel characters.

“Fox has been really incredibly supportive of us and encouraging bold choices, new choices, multi-faceted choices and particularly with the type of film maker that have been draw to the genre. So I’m not surprise to see three films coming out that are all part of their comic book universe, within the X-Men world. I don’t know that you’ll see that every year but there’s really a plethora of opportunity and, as you know as a fan of the comics, in particularly when you, the genre has evolved from the classic tone into a broader array of tones.

“I really do think, when you think of the landscape of genre films that you begin to realize, “Wow!” Any one of those could be, you could do a romantic comedy version. You could do a thriller version. There are a lot of different options and that’s exciting potentially to filmmakers, that’s exciting to various storytellers, and I think it’s exciting to the actors. So, all of that simply argues for a continuance of this, what you’re describing this year.”

After losing two directors and undergoing extensive rewrites, the long in-development GAMBIT film starring Channing Tatum is still a point of interest for the producers and 20th Century Fox.

“I don’t have any news on [Gambit], but there’s still a desire and a passionate interest to see that movie made.”

This Fall will see the release of Fox TV’s THE GIFTED and season 2 of LEGION is preparing for 2018. With the mutants now on live-action TV, many fans wonder if the shows will have any direct connections to the film. According to Parker, they will be their own thing.

“[The TV series] are more of their own thing. I think they’re designed really to, again, part of what I think has always been compelling about the X-Men Universe to me is, it is about individuals grappling with the degrees and ways in which they’re different from the society in which they live. That as an idea allows you, you can follow any one of countless characters in the universe and have a completely idiosyncratic experience, right?

“A completely unique story. I think what’s great about what they’ve been doing in TV is they’re finding those nooks and crannies and characters and new articulations or expressions of those issues and exploring them in a series format. So without being specifically tied, they’re another way in which the [X-Men] universe is getting expanded.”

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