Fox kicked up a storm of speculation when it announced its plans for a “mystery” Marvel movie for summer 2018. While limited in scope by the characters it owns, the possibilities sure are juicy.
On Thursday night, Fox put a pin in July 13, 2018, for the unnamed comic-book film. It also set a few more concrete details, including a sequel to its rebooted Fantastic Four for 2017 (before even shooting the first one), another Wolverine earlier that year and an unidentified Ridley Scott film (Prometheus sequel, anyone?) for March 2016.
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But let’s face it: People just want to know what the “mystery” Marvel movie will be. Mashable has a handful of ideas, ordered roughly from most likely to least likely.
For your handy reference, here’s what Fox has coming in the Marvel mold:
X-Men: Days of Future Past: May 23, 2014
The Fantastic Four: June 19, 2015
X-Men: Apocalypse: May 27, 2016
Untitled Wolverine film: March 3, 2017
The Fantastic Four 2: July 14, 2017
Untitled Marvel film: July 13, 2018

Could Fox be eyeing a mega-movie with the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and some other surprises thrown in? That would confirm a rumor that's been going around for more than a year now.
A team-up is the holy grail of superhero movies — Disney/Marvel demonstrated that with a record-shattering $1.5 billion worldwide for Avengers — but as Warner Bros. has found while chasing its tail on a Justice League film, the degree of difficulty is extreme.
Does Fox have the wherewithal to pull this one off? We'd love to see it, and there's good reason to believe it. Simon Kinberg, who is writing both franchises for Fox, has not been shy about expressing a desire to "be like Marvel" with what he has.

Though this theory sounds likely enough, Fox seems to like late May for its X-Men standalones. A fourth film is a lot to ask of an ensemble franchise of A-list stars such as Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and Jackman. And it's way too soon for a total X-Men reboot.
If it is just another X-Men film, it's more likely that a new set of mutants — Gambit and Nightcrawler, just for starters, or maybe an all-new batch — would be front-and-center for a franchise hand-off of sorts.

Fox dated its first sequel Thursday for July 14, 2017 — more than two years after the reboot. It would make some sense for them to shoot 2 and 3 back-to-back, then release them almost exactly one year apart.
But there’s something strange about announcing a sequel while in the same breath, keeping the third installment on a “mystery” date. Why build anticipation for something fairly routine? We’ll probably get a FF3, but it’s more likely coming in 2019.

Though Raven Darkhölme/Mystique is hardly one of Marvel’s more popular characters, Jennifer Lawrence could absolutely open a superhero film, even if it’s as the duplicitous dark blue shapeshifter. J-Law’s grueling Hunger Games commitments will be over by then and she’ll need another big payday to maintain the A-list lifestyle.
Other possibilities: Fassbender’s Magneto and/or James McAvoy’s Charles Xavier, someone new as Scott Summers (X-Men field general “Cyclops,” curiously left out of First Class and Future Past films), or one of Marvel’s dozens of mutant character sets yet to grace the big screen.

This should be the answer: the wisecracking, fourth-wall-breaking “merc with a mouth” needs a damn movie already, and Fox still has the rights.
Deadpool, a.k.a. Wade Wilson, may be the most popular Marvel comic never to get proper big screen treatment. Ryan Reynolds’ extended Deadpool cameo in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine wasn’t that — and the character is just weird, funny and horror-movie-violent enough to work on a wider audience. But he may also be too weird and funny and violent, and Reynolds is on blockbuster time-out after stink-bombs Green Lantern and R.I.P.D.
While Deadpool’s fans remain hopeful that he’ll get his turn, whether with Reynolds or another actor, the character’s original comic book creator and fulltime Deadpool-movie cheerleader, Robert Liefeld, is decidedly less so:
Don't hold your breath- I'm not RT @elmayimbe: Fox/Marvel film for 7/13/18 They own what? X-Men, FF, & DEADPOOL. Gotta be 1 of those 3
— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) March 21, 2014
 

James Mangold is back for the sequel to The Wolverine, which did brisk worldwide business last year at nearly $415 million. That sequel is set for March 30, 2017, which means Jackman would have to turn around another one the following year.
Considering how in-demand he is, and the fact that he’ll turn the big 5-0 in 2018, we’re counting this one out, bub.

Besides the X-Men and Deadpool, these characters are about all Fox has to work with – but being real here, each is too obscure to do a standalone.
Silver Surfer has already played a sort-of villain in a previous Fantastic Four film (cool trailer above); cable is really more of an obscure Deadpool side man; and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are caught in limbo between Fox and Disney. With Disney casting both the latter characters in its next Avengers film, this one’s all but moot, too.

OK, this isn’t so much a possibility as it is a pipe-dream. It ain't happening — but wouldn't it be great?
When Marvel divvied up its characters between studios some years ago, it clearly lacked the foresight to see that fans would desperately want a cohesive, fully integrated cinematic universe — like the many juicy crossovers we have in the Marvel publishing multiverse.
But movie executive egos, legal issues and creative head-butting are just too ominous for us to ever see Sony’s Peter Parker join Disney’s Avengers (like he should), or for Fox to lend super-genius Reed Richards — Mr. Fantastic himself — over to match wits with Tony Stark and friends. Sadly, the only way we’ll see these characters reunited onscreen is if superhero movies cool off, studios lose the will to develop them and rights revert to one place — Marvel/Disney.
Pretty sure we covered the scenarios here, and if it’s none of these — well, that would be a pleasant surprise indeed. Unfortunately, Hollywood studios are pretty lousy at delivering those these days.
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