Fox has writer/director Drew Goddard for their upcoming X-Men sister film, X-Force. Goddard will both write and direct the Deadpool 2 spin-off, which is expected to retain Ryan Reynolds (‘Deadpool’), Josh Brolin (‘Cable’), and Zazie Beetz (‘Domino’), as well as add other popular characters from the comics. As with most films in the X-Men Cinematic Universe these, it will be produced by Lauren Shuler-Donner and Simon Kinberg, as well as Ryan Reynolds.
No production timeline has been set for the film just yet, but don’t be too surprised if Fox ends up adding the project to their 2019 slate. Goddard is currently set to direct his original script Bad Times at the El Royale next, with production slated to begin this fall with Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Bridges in the lead. X-Force should be his immediate next film.
With the official details out of the way, let’s dig into the meat of this. First off, what happened to Joe Carnahan? After all, word earlier in the year had The A-Team and Narc filmmaker on board to develop X-Force. Is he off the project or were those reports a bit off? While the former is entirely likely, especially in light of Carnahan’s recent luck, I’m leaning toward the latter. After all, Deadpool 3 was basically put into early development right alongside X-Force. Could Carnahan be on that project instead? Given his Reynolds connection due to Smokin’ Aces, it wouldn’t surprise me, especially since Deadpool 3 is not expected to retain Deadpool 2 director David Leitch.
Back to Goddard, this feels like a long-time coming. After starting out in television on various geek favorite shows such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer“, “Angel“, “Alias“, and “Lost“, the man burst into our hearts as the writer of Cloverfield and the writer/director of The Cabin in the Woods. Aside from doing a rewrite on World War Z and adapting The Martian for the big screen, however, it’s been back to television for him since then. Mind you this TV work has included Marvel’s “Daredevil” and “The Defenders” on Netflix, but it’s a shame that he hasn’t been able to get another film made.
Goddard was attached to do a Sinister Six film for Sony at one point, but plans for that went up in flames when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 stumbled at the box office a few years ago. I wasn’t a fan of that particular idea, but Goddard seems to have a knack for comic book-style storytelling, so I’m all smiles with his hiring here. With Bad Times at the El Royale also coming on top of it, it’s a good time to be a fan of Goddard’s work.
