Fox's upcoming X-Force film has found a writer, director and direction. Deadline reports that Daredevil's Drew Goddard is attached to write and direct the film. The X-Men franchise installment will revolve around Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool with Cable (Josh Brolin) playing a major role.
According to the report, X-Force finds "Deadpool and Cable leading a Black Ops force of down and dirty mutant warriors who are far more ruthless than their X-Men counterparts." At the time of writing, it is unclear which mutant characters will end up on Deadpool and Cable's "Black Ops" team. Though Goddard is currently at work on another film, he has started penning a script and will jump over to X-Force when his other project is complete.
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Goddard is no stranger to the world of sci-fi and fantasy. He acted as executive producer on such series as Alias, Lost, Daredevil and The Defenders and served as writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, World War Z, The Martian and Cabin in the Woods, which he also directed. His directorial credits also include several episodes of The Good Place. At one time, he was even attached to write and direct the Spider-Man spinoff Sinister Six, though those plans were scrapped when Sony and Marvel Studios struck a deal to share rights to the character.
Reynolds and longtime X-Men producers Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner are onboard to produce. Kinberg confirmed that Cable would be part of X-Force back in March, weeks before Brolin was cast in the role for Deadpool 2. This latest report shows that this direction has not changed now that Goddard is at the helm.
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Deadpool 2, which is currently filming, is expected to hit theaters before X-Force. According to Deadpool 2 screenwriter Rhett Reese, the film won't do much heavy lifting towards setting up X-Force, because their goal is "to tell a Deadpool story in an emotional, fun, satisfying way." However, it will introduce two primary members of that team: Cable and Domino. As above, Cable has been confirmed to return for X-Force, but Domino's status is up in the air at this time.
X-Force does not yet have an official release date. Deadpool will next appear in Deadpool 2, which hits theaters on June 1, 2018 and stars Ryan Reynolds, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Karan Soni and Leslie Uggams, along with newcomers Josh Brolin as Cable and Zazie Beetz as Domino. Fox has slated April 13, 2018 as the release date for director Josh Boone’s New Mutants, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix flies into theaters November 2, 2018.