“It came about for a couple of reasons. One of my friends Joe Carnahan was saying to them (FOX) Mark was involved with Marvel for years and a lot of the stuff that was used in The Avengers movie, the source material was a book I’d done called The Ultimates. He said, look Mark could be a really good resource for you and the guys at Fox had read The Ultimates and they said if he can bring that same sort of thing to the Fox lane of Marvel characters that could be really beneficial.
“So Fox are thinking, ‘We’re sitting on some really awesome things here. There is another side of the Marvel Universe. Let’s try and get some cohesiveness going.’ So they brought me in to oversee that really. To work with the writers and directors to suggest new ways we could take this stuff and new properties that could spin out of it because the X-Men alone feels like a universe of itself. There’s so many characters in there and so many great potential spin-off characters.
“They asked me to come in and work out a plan. So unfortunately at this point I can’t get too specific. I do have a three to four year plan of where things could go, but you know, I’ll be working with guys like Matthew and Josh Trank, who’s the new director on Fantastic Four, and just figuring out how everything can work together and not contradict each other. But I also don’t want to make it too much of a mess either, with everyone showing up in everyone else’s films.
“What my dream is, as a fan, is that when you go and see any Marvel movie that it feels as if they’re all taking place in the one universe like when you pick up a Marvel comic. You should feel as if they’re all taking place in one big kind of cohesive place.”
X-Men: Days of Future Past is currently in pre-production for a targeted July 18, 2014 release date with Fantastic Four in active development.
