I"m surprised that the last three superhero movie franchises developed by Marvel and DC, outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Universe, have all ended in the same disappointing way. In the last few decades, there have been many attempts at adapting epic events and characters from Marvel and DC Comics into some huge and expansive live-action movie franchises. I"m not alone in favoring Marvel Studios" ever-growing MCU, while the new DCU, under the leadership of James Gunn and Peter Safran, is also looking promising, but not all superhero movie franchises have been so lucky.
Outside the MCU and the newly-rebooted DCU, 20th Century Fox"s X-Men Universe, the DC Extended Universe and Sony"s Spider-Man Universe have all delivered their own interpretations of these stories from Marvel and DC Comics. All these franchises have also come to an end, the most recent being the SSU, with 2024"s Kraven the Hunter marking its final movie. I can"t say I"ve been surprised that these franchises have been canceled, but I have been quite surprised to watch them all come to an end in, unfortunately, similar ways.
The New Mutants Ended Fox’s X-Men Franchise With A Whimper The New Mutants Ended Fox's X-Men Universe On August 28, 2020 Close Back in 2020, The New Mutants marked the sorry demise of 20th Century Fox"s X-Men franchise, which introduced an entire world of mutant heroes and villains into live-action before any other superhero franchise had legs. Fox produced 13 movies in the X-Men franchise, kicking off with 2000"s X-Men and coming to an end shortly after Disney"s acquisition of Fox was finalized in 2019. Unfortunately, I do not consider The New Mutants to be a fond farewell to the X-Men franchise, and Josh Boone"s movie actually encapsulated everything that was wrong with the franchise.
Fox X-Men Universe Movie
Release Date
Box Office
X-Men
July 14, 2000
$296.3 million
X2: X-Men United
May 2, 2003
$407.7 million
X-Men: The Last Stand
May 26, 2006
$460.4 million
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
May 1, 2009
$373 million
X-Men: First Class
June 3, 2011
$353 million
The Wolverine
July 26, 2013
$414.8 million
X-Men: Days of Future Past
May 23, 2014
$746 million
Deadpool
February 12, 2016
$782 million
X-Men: Apocalypse
May 27, 2016
$543.9 million
Logan
March 3, 2017
$619.2 million
Deadpool 2
May 18, 2018
$785 million
Dark Phoenix
June 7, 2019
$252.4 million
The New Mutants
August 28, 2020
$49.2 million
The box office draw of The New Mutants is emblematic of the X-Men franchise"s disappointing ending, though this surely was impacted by restrictions brought about during the COVID-19 pandemic, too. I absolutely loved several movies in Fox"s Marvel franchise, with X2, First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan and the Deadpool movies standing out as my favorites. However, the lack of care given to Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants amid Disney"s acquisition of Fox meant that the franchise ended incredibly poorly, though Marvel Studios has since paid homage to the old franchise.

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