What Could Fox's Mystery Marvel And Ridley Scott Movies Be?

Late Thursday night, 20th Century Fox dropped some potentially massive news. They gave release dates to about six new movies, including sequels to The Wolverine and the yet-to-film Fantastic Four reboot. Among the films was also a "Mystery Marvel Movie" on July 13, 2018 and a "Untitled Ridley Scott" film on March 4, 2016. Below, we'll give you a few options of what each of those might be.

Before we move along, realize the fact Fox specifically made both these movies mysteries means they themselves probably haven't settled on them. They certainly have an idea, but chances are all six of the below movies are in play at the moment.

When it comes to Fox and Marvel, it pretty much limits the options. The don't own that much Marvel any longer. And it gets easier especially when we already know X-Men: Apocalypse is coming in 2016 and Fantastic Four 2 and The Wolverine 2 are dated. If you take all those off the table, basically, these are the options:

  • Deadpool
  • X-Force
  • Another X-Men movie/Fantastic Four crossver
  • The latest updates we heard on Deadpool were encouraging. Attached director Tim Miller said the film was just waiting for Fox to give the greenlight and star Ryan Reynolds believed things were progressing. That puts this film in prime contention, however, the prestigious summer release date doesn't quite mesh with the lesser known character and self-referential nature of the film.X-Force was being written by Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow, and while the film has been discussed in some interviews, there doesn't seem to be a lot of momentum. It has a shot here, but feels unlikely.

    Finally, there's the potential of a new X-Men movie. 2018 will be two years removed from Apocalypse and a year after Wolverine 2. That's the perfect amount of time to continue the franchise. Plus, it's the summer after Fantastic Four 2, which would be the right time for a potential crossover. Out of the three options, I think this is the safe bet.

    Now to Ridley Scott. Scott literally has over a dozen properties he's attached to at multiple studios. His Scott Free productions also own the rights to a lot of things that could go to any studio, so this one is a bit more difficult to predict. However, considering it's Fox and considering this release date is March 4, 2016, these are three of the best bets.

  • Prometheus 2
  • Murder on the Orient Express
  • The Forever War
  • The obvious choice is Prometheus 2, a film Scott has been talking about for a long time. Last year he surmised he might get around to it in 2015, which would fit this timeline, but is the audience really clamoring for it? 

    Fox recently picked up the rights to remake Murder on the Orient Express with Scott as a producer. He's currently not scheduled to direct, but no one is, and a glossy-murder mystery fits that March release date perfectly.

    Then there's The Forever War, an epic sci-fi story Scott has been attached to since 2008. It's also at Fox and last year Scott say they'd recently gotten a very good draft of the script. That's encouraging but this one has been in development for so, so long, it's hard to imagine it ever getting made.

    Of those three, I'd say Forever War and Prometheus are the front runners, simply because of the nature of this release date announcement: high-concept, blockbuster films. We can, however, rule out one film for sure. It won't be Blade Runner 2, which is owned by Warner Bros. Plus, if this mystery movie is next for Scott after Exodus, it bumps any chance of Blade Runner 2 back even further into the decade.

    Other potential options for Scott are the YA novel Rae and a movie about football concussions, As of now, he's just producing those but that's usually how he picks his directorial films. Neither is specifically set up at a studio.

    In the case of either of these release dates, Fox could always pull a wild card and make it something totally different. However, if this were Vegas, those are the films with the odds at the moment.

    What do you think each film will be?