Now that it’s got its Avatar sequels squared away safely in 2020—and every subsequent December from now until the heat death of the universe—Fox has started solidifying its film schedule for the more immediate future, especially the lucrative titles in its X-Men movie franchise. The studio now has three different mutant-related superhero movies on its 2018 slate, with Deadpool 2, New Mutants, and a Dark Phoenix movie all getting spots on the schedule today.
Deadpool 2—which recently found its Cable, in the form of go-to superhero heavy Josh Brolin—will arrive in the heart of summer, on June 1, where Fox is presumably hoping it’ll have the same seismic impact as its unexpectedly successful forbearer. New Mutants, meanwhile—not to be confused with Freeform’s similarly titled New Warriors, starring Squirrel Girl—will arrive a little earlier, on April 13. Directed by Josh Boone, we don’t know much about this one, beyond the fact that it’ll presumably feature a younger team of superheroes looking to defend and protect a world that hates and fears them, etc.
We know even less about Dark Phoenix, although we can make a few guesses from the title. Set for November 2, this may or may not be the new main-series X-Men movie that people have been expected producer Simon Kinberg to step up and direct. It’ll presumably star the franchise’s latest Jean Grey, Sophie Turner, following up on the events that pushed her powers to their limits at the end of last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse.
Meanwhile, it’s not all mutants and mayhem on the Fox schedule; Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers movie, starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, will go nationwide on January 12, 2018. Steve McQueen’s heist thriller Widows has been set for November 16, and Bryan Singer’s Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody gets the plum Christmas spot on December 25.