It was just a couple of weeks ago that Bryan Singer, perhaps ever optimistic about the outcome of "Fantastic Four," was already teasing the possibilities of a long rumored crossover movie with "X-Men." He stated that there was a a "natural mechanism" that could make it work and that the concept to bring it all together “deals with time.” And while the director intimated that some kind of conversations were happening, the producers behind the franchise are changing the tune.
In an emailed statement to New York Daily News, producers Simon Kinberg and Hutch Parker have started to back away from talk about any kind of crossover, citing the "challenging" nature of making it work. Here’s what they said:
They exist in parallel universes. The Fantastic 4 live in a world without mutants. And the X-Men live in a world without the Fantastic 4. Crossing them over would be challenging, but we sure would love to see all those actors together, the way we had them on stage at [San Diego] Comic Con.
And frankly, that kind of makes sense. With the X-Men set to rock the 1980s in "X-Men: Apocalypse" and the Fantastic Four in the present day in the reboot, we’re not sure how they would meet up beyond Reed Richards inventing some kind of time machine. Though Singer thinks there’s another way it could happen, that’s the least of the studio’s concerns.
They are probably more concerned about how to salvage this reboot which looks like it’s going to strongly underperform with an opening weekend projected to be lower than the previous two films. If they’re still moving ahead with that sequel that’s already dated for a summer 2017 release, that’s going to be their first and foremost priority before thinking of any larger universe connectivity. [via Comic Book Movie]