It appears the new superhero franchise requirement is that all stories that can possibly connected will be. Of course, this is largely due to the success of Marvel’s The Avengers franchise, which has now had two billion dollar hits in a row with The Avengers and Iron Man 3. There has been talk of figuring out how DC will do it and it seems they are going straight for the jugular with their Batman vs. Superman (aka Man of Steel 2) sequel and now Mark Millar over at Fox is promising the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) will exist in the same world as the studio’s X-Men franchise, which continues next year with Bryan Singer‘s X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Speaking with SFX (via CBM & The Playlist) Millar said, “Without question I think you have to see some of these guys showing up in each other’s movies… I think the most exciting thing in superhero movies, until The Avengers came along, was when Nick Fury showed up in Iron Man. Even though it was a guy with an eye patch it was really cool — and I expect we will see more of that.”
Going from “without question” to “I expect” is a bit of a fall back, but still, this seems to be the current logic.
X-Men: Days of Future Past hits theaters on May 23, 2014 (see the first official picture here) and Fantastic Four arrives on March 6, 2015.