10 Movies That Led To Other Movies Being Cancelled (And Why)
7. Dark Phoenix And Disney Send The X-Men Back To Square One
There's every likelihood that Disney and Marvel Studios were planning on washing their hands entirely of Fox's X-Men franchise when they acquired the rights to the characters, but if Dark Phoenix had turned out to be a critical and commercial smash hit, then it might have at least given them some food for thought.
Instead, the troubled production turned out to be a massive box office bomb as well as one of the most creatively misguided comic book blockbusters in recent years, and marked an ignominious end for what had been one of Hollywood's most reliable franchises for almost two decades.
Not only did Dark Phoenix see Fox's X-Men go out with a whimper, it also created a domino effect that saw Disney and Marvel wipe their hands clean of any mutant-related properties following the takeover. Channing Tatum's Gambit was finally put out to pasture, while Drew Goddard's X-Force, James Mangold's X-23 spinoff and a potential Multiple Man solo movie starring James Franco were all canned by the Mouse House, with the already-completed New Mutants still in limbo without a release date.