The thing is, with all of these spin-off films and TV shows in the works, who's going to be in charge of all of them? The X-Men franchise as a whole was widely considered to have gone off the boil as soon as Bryan Singer, the director who helmed the first two films, jumped ship to go make Superman Returns instead. That left the third in the original trilogy, The Last Stand, to be directed by Brett Ratner, otherwise known for the Rush Hour movies. It wasn't great. Things improved when Kick-Ass and Stardust director Matthew Vaughan, who was originally meant to take over from Singer with Last Stand, came aboard for First Class; it wasn't until the man who originated the movie franchise came back properly for Days Of Future Past that the general public really bought back into the X-Men cinematic universe, though. Which poses a unique problem, because obviously Fox want to replicate the success of that film as much as possible, but how can they do that without stretching Singer dangerously thin? Much like Disney's strategy with the Star Wars Expanded Universe, they're going to have to seek out new directors to helm these new sequels, spin-offs and shows. Which could lead them down some interesting avenues - Disney have JJ Abrams doing the first proper Star Wars, but then Looper's Rian Johnson doing the sequels, and Godzilla director Gareth Jones pencilled in for something else. Marvel too have been taking chances with the likes of Kenneth Brannagh and Scott Derrickson, 500 Days Of Summer's Marc Webb probably wasn't the obvious choice for The Amazing Spider-Man (despite the surname) and Singer, who had previously produced dramas like Apt Pupil and The Usual Suspects, was maybe strange as the guy to start the X-Men films in the first place. Who they choose now could take things to some incredibly exciting places.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
