When Avengers: Doomsday arrives later this year, fans will be eagerly awaiting the first full-scale integration of the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe—something that’s been anticipated since Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox was finalized back in 2019. But there was once a time that superhero movies weren’t so beloved among Hollywood’s decision makers, according to a former Fox executive who left the company right before the first X-Men movie released in 2000.
Speaking to Business Insider (via Variety), former chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment Bill Mechanic looked back on his tenure at the studio, which ran from 1996 to 2000, and remembered the in-house reaction to Bryan Singer’s movie.
“They saw it and thought it was a disaster—why would anybody make a Marvel comic into a movie?” he recalled; the publication notes the negative feedback from higher-ups marked the “final straw” after a series of disappointments as Mechanic’s time at Fox came to an end. (The bulk of the article is about his work on Fight Club, to give you an idea.)
However, as Business Insider points out, “The release would go on to launch the hugely successful X-Men franchise, which has brought in close to $6 billion in worldwide grosses to date.”
Currently, an X-Men reboot feature is very much a part of Marvel’s future plans, with Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier attached. It’s not expected to hit theaters until after Avengers: Secret Wars, which is slated for December 2027. But you can assume Disney is already looking at the project and thinking “big money,” not “disaster.”
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