10 Costly Mistakes That Doomed Great Movie Franchises

Much like Sony's first Spider-Man franchise, Fox's mutant universe appeared to be in strong health for a decent spell there.

There were still the odd The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine hiccups here and there, of course., but for the most part, the X-Men flicks had consistently delivered fresh, engaging, bold, and exciting tales involving a whole host of captivating, three-dimensional super-figures.

But in the wake of the stellar clash of generations that was Days of Future Past, Fox appeared to simply run out of thrilling ideas for the students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Replaying the hits and arcs throughout both Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, everything from Quicksilver's less impressive slow-motion sequence sequel, to the need to pointlessly shoe-horn Hugh Jackman's Wolverine into the action, to delivering yet another lacklustre version of the iconic Dark Phoenix storyline, all pointed to a franchise that had peaked during that aforementioned time travelling epic.

Sure, the likes of Logan and Deadpool offered some hope away from Charles and his team clashing with Thanos-like super-mutants and Phoenix Forces. But it was clear that an MCU mutant reboot/refresh of sorts was needed by the time the latest uninspiring Fox X-chapter stumbled out of theatres in 2019.