Disney declared Monday, May 13 to be “X-Men Day” and promised some “exclusive content, special events, and fun surprises.” However, the studio’s Twitter feed has been all-‘Aladdin’-all-the-time. But they did release a short video that paid tribute to the successful film franchise, which originated at 20th Century Fox, which now belongs to Disney. Disney plans to reboot the characters are part of its Marvel Cinematic Universe, but if it weren’t for Fox’s franchise, the MCU and modern superhero movies probably wouldn’t even exist.
Check out the X-Men legacy video below:
Fox launched this brand with 2000’s ‘X-Men’, which followed 1999’s ‘Blade’ and kicked off the modern era of comic book movies. Total, the franchise has generated over two billion dollars, including the two ‘Deadpool’ movies, which are the two top-grossing movies in the series. This version of the franchise comes to an end with the release of ‘Dark Phoenix’ on June 7. (Tickets are now available to pre-order.) There is also ‘New Mutants’, an outlier that isn’t directly connected to the main brand, which has been pushed to next April.
RELATED: ‘Dark Phoenix’ Is Expected To Have The Lowest ‘X-Men’ Opening Ever
Many major stars have starred in the ‘X-Men’ movies, some of whom were already established, like Halle Berry, Ian McKellan, Ryan Reynolds, and Patrick Stewart, while others were on their way to bigger success like Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, and James McAvoy. The newest crop of mutants, including Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, and Sophie Turner look to be following in their footsteps to bigger and better things.
But the greatest success story from the franchise was the discovery of Hugh Jackman, who was an unknown before being cast to play Wolverine, taking over for Dougray Scott who had to drop out when filming of ‘Mission: Impossible 2’ ran over. Jackman’s ‘X-Men’ success led to him becoming an extremely popular and acclaimed actor in film and on stage. He won a Tony Award for headlining the Broadway musical ‘The Boy From Oz’, and due to his likeability and recognizability, was selected to host the Tony Awards telecast for four years in a row, with him winning an Emmy for one of those gigs. He was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for the film musical ‘Les Misérables’. His last major ‘X-Men’ flick, ‘Logan’ was the first comic book movie to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Say goodbye to the ‘X-Men’ franchise on June 7, when ‘Dark Phoenix’ opens.
