When Disney purchasing 21st Century Fox became a possibility, questions were immediately raised about what the deal could mean for the future of Fox’s various X-Men projects in development. Now that the ink is dry, it is becoming clear that the majority of those projects don’t have a future. The latest evidence of this, in a bummer bit of news, Tim Miller has revealed that he doesn’t think the Kitty Pryde movie will happen. The Terminator: Dark Fate director lamented the loss of the film, saying:
What a bummer. Among all the X-Men projects Fox was developing, from Gambit to Multiple Man, the Kitty Pryde movie was perhaps the most interesting. Unfortunately, Tim Miller seems pretty confident that his time with the X-Men on the big screen is over. And with it, the Kitty Pryde movie. The director who first brought a proper Deadpool to the big screen sounds fairly disappointed about it too.
As he tells Comicbook.com, Tim Miller really loves the X-Men and in particular loved the idea for the Kitty Pryde movie he was developing. He isn’t expecting to get to do the film though now that the X-Men are under the Disney umbrella. Not that he wouldn’t answer if Marvel Studios came calling, just that he is in no way expecting that.
Tim Miller’s doubtful comments here would seem to indicate that the director hasn’t heard anything positive on the Kitty Pryde front that would give him any hope that the movie could still happen. This runs counter to what we heard earlier this year from the film’s screenwriter and legendary comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis.
Back in February, Brian Michael Bendis gave us hope that the movie wasn’t dead and that we would still see Shadowcat running around the X-Mansion on the big screen, when he said that he was working on the script. Perhaps something has changed since then or maybe he just hadn’t gotten the memo.
Following Deadpool, Tim Miller didn’t return for the sequel but began developing this secret X-Men film that was known as 143, with Brian Michael Bendis handling the script. It turns out that 143 was a reference to Uncanny X-Men #143, an issue where Shadowcat is alone in the X-Mansion during Christmastime and she has to fight off a demon in a haunted house style Christmas story. We don’t know who would have played Kitty, but Ellen Page seemed down to return to the role.
It’s a story that if adapted to film, would be quite different than the kind of thing we usually see from either the X-Men or superhero movies in general. Unfortunately, that’s also why it seems like it wouldn’t really fit with the MCU. We don’t know what Marvel Studios’ plans are for the mutants as of yet, but this story seems a bit too self-contained for the studio’s big screen efforts. That said, an X-Men Christmas movie would be an awesome fit for Disney+. So although Tim Miller doesn’t think it will ever happen, it would be cool for Marvel to take another look at this one and see if there’s a way to incorporate it into its plans down the line.
For the moment, we can add 143 to the list of Fox X-Men movies that don’t seem like they will ever happen now, alongside X-Force, Gambit and X-23. The last of the Fox X-Men movies, The New Mutants, is still expected to hit theaters on April 3, 2020. Check out our 2020 Release Schedule to see what other movies you can look forward to next year.