6 Movie Franchises That Were Saved By A Reboot (And 6 That Were Doomed)

It seems that every time Fox try and tell the Dark Phoenix story on the big screen, it causes huge problems for the X-Men. The one-two punch of The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine almost brought the entire franchise to a screeching halt a decade ago, while Simon Kinberg's recently-released directorial debut will end up causing a huge financial loss for the studio before Marvel Studios take control of the rights in the wake of the Disney takeover.

The Last Stand may have been the highest-earning mutant movie to date at the time, but the rather muted response from both fans and critics saw the creative team behind the series decide to take things in a different direction. In came Matthew Vaughn and an almost entirely new cast, with the end result being the 1960s set prequel First Class, a vibrant instalment that proved to be a breath of fresh air for the flagging property.

First Class may have brought the band of mutants back from the cinematic brink, but the franchise never managed to maintain its consistency, and the less said about the mind-boggling inconsistencies of the timeline the better. The highs of First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan and Deadpool were countered by the disappointment of Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, and at this point who even knows if the long-delayed New Mutants will ever even see the light of day.