Fox Announces An 'Untitled' Deadpool Movie For Christmas 2018; Moves 'Alita' To 2019

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It’s a flurry of release date changes and shifts at 20th Century Fox as they stare down the deadline of Disney owning their company in mid-2019. First, as just reported, just days after releasing their new trailer to an underwhelming response, Fox has delayed their X-Men “Dark Phoenix” movie until summer 2019 (ouch). But there’s more, a new “Deadpool” film is coming. Kind of.

READ MORE: Fox Pushes ‘X-Men Dark Phoenix’ To Summer 2019 Just Days After Its Trailer Debut

Fox has moved their ” Alita: Battle Angel” movie. Directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by “Avatar” filmmaker James Cameron (who famously stumbled on the “Avatar” technology so that he could make an ‘Alita’ film), ‘Alita’ was originally scheduled for the extremely crowded December 21, 2018 weekend which currently contains Paramount‘s “Bumblebee,” Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman,” Sony‘s “Holmes & Watson,” Universal‘s “Welcome to Marwen” and just two days before that, Disney‘s “Mary Poppins Returns.”

These are all wide releases, some 3000+ screens each and that’s insane. If you’ve been paying attention to us at all, or any movie site, really, you know many people have assumed some studio was going to swerve off in this game of chicken.

So, don’t worry, Fox, we totally understand.

They’ve moved ‘Alita’ off Dec 21 and instead, moved the film to Feb. 14, 2019; the date “Dark Phoenix” had as of a few hours ago. But the surprise movie, yes, I’m finally getting here, is adding an “Untitled Deadpool” movie in its place on December 21.

Was a new “Deadpool” film quietly shot in secret over the last few months? Is it some radical new cut of “Deadpool 2” or the filthier, unrated version that screened at Comic-Con this summer? Nope, it appears to be a PG-13 version of “Deadpool 2”. Or at least, according to Deadline’s sources, that’s what the plan is, though it is unofficial as of right now. And given that Disney is taking over Fox mid-2019, it’s a really intriguing idea.

First, you can probably make extra “Deadpool” money this Christmas as all the under-18-years-of-age kids that didn’t already sneak into the film can finally see it. And to add credence to this assumption, Ryan Reynolds tweeted an image showing Santa Deadpool reading a children’s story to actor Fred Savage? Why the odd picture? Looking at the set-up of the image, film fans might immediately recall the popular film “The Princess Bride,” which featured a young Fred Savage being read a story by his grandfather, played by Peter Falk. And as you probably know, the grandfather was quick to skip over the more adult situations to make the story more kid-friendly. So, one can assume that’s what Fox has in mind, and the picture is a meta-confirmation of that decision.

Secondly, and this is much trickier, but, then there’s the whole Disney/Fox/Marvel thing. Can “Deadpool,” a Marvel franchise soon to be under the supervision of Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios work as a PG-13 franchise? It’s been hard-R up until now and that’s done wonders for Fox—”Deadpool” movies have bested all the “X-Men” films financially at the box office by a nearly embarrassing amount—but there’s the question of how “Deadpool” exists at Marvel.

Given their universe is definitely PG-13 and likely staying that way, does “Deadpool” transform into a much-less filthy version of itself to integrate? Or does it stay hard R and current Marvel characters probably don’t crossover (you could, but $100 says Bob Iger won’t want that)? All of it is very fascinating.

So, there you have it. ‘X-Men’ bounced for the third time to summer 2019, ‘Alita,’ as expected, moving to 2019 and a “new” Deadpool movie coming just in time for Christmas. It’s just another day at 20th Century Fox.