Fox announces three X-Men films for 2018 including Dark Phoenix

Despite all its time-travelling changes and new timelines, 20th Century Fox’s X-Men franchise found itself coming full circle last year with the relative disappointment of X-Men: Apocalypse stalling the series just as X-Men: The Last Stand had in 2006. But it seems the similarities don’t stop there as the Dark Phoenix is set to rise again. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

Three new X-Men films have been announced with the next installment in the franchise set to be a new version of the Jean Grey/Phoenix saga that made up the bulk of the story for Last Stand. With the timeline now reset, it’s Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner who will turn evil in the new film, which is rumoured to be the directorial debut of X-Men “guru” Simon Kinberg. No other information has been released other than the release date which will be on November 2nd, 2018 – the first entry to open outside of the summer.

Before then, a new spin-off will be released in the form of New Mutants, to be directed by Josh Boone (The Fault in our Stars), set to open on April 13th, 2018. As with Dark Phoenix no other details have yet been announced, thought rumours abound suggest that James McAvoy will appear as Professor X alongside Anya Taylor-Joy (Split) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones).

And of course there’s also the little matter of Deadpool 2 – with the casting of Josh Brolin as Cable the final piece of the puzzle, production is set to start very soon with a new release date announced for June 1st, 2018.

2018 is set to be one of the most conjested superhero summers of all time with Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and Ant-Man and The Wasp coming from Marvel, while DC could yet have one or two films on the horizon as well as Aquaman.