{"id":621168,"date":"2026-04-22T14:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621168\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T14:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:08:08","slug":"back-in-2000-fox-executives-thought-the-x-men-movie-would-be-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621168\/","title":{"rendered":"Back in 2000, Fox Executives Thought the ‘X-Men’ Movie Would Be a ‘Disaster’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Avengers: Doomsday<\/a> arrives later this year, fans will be eagerly awaiting the first full-scale integration of the X-Men<\/a> into the Marvel Cinematic Universe<\/a>\u2014something that\u2019s been anticipated since Disney\u2019s acquisition of 21st Century Fox was finalized back in 2019. But there was once a time that superhero movies weren\u2019t so beloved among Hollywood\u2019s decision makers, according to a former Fox executive who left the company right before the first X-Men movie released in 2000.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Business Insider<\/a> (via Variety<\/a>), 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\u2019s movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey saw it and thought it was a disaster\u2014why would anybody make a Marvel comic into a movie?\u201d he recalled; the publication notes the negative feedback from higher-ups marked the \u201cfinal straw\u201d after a series of disappointments as Mechanic\u2019s time at Fox came to an end. (The bulk of the article is about his work on Fight Club, to give you an idea.)<\/p>\n

However, as Business Insider points out, \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, an X-Men reboot feature is very much a part of Marvel\u2019s future plans, with Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier attached<\/a>. It\u2019s 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 \u201cbig money,\u201d not \u201cdisaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Avengers: Doomsday arrives later this year, fans will be eagerly awaiting the first full-scale integration of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3076,49,48,75,337,21785],"class_list":{"0":"post-621168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-avengers-doomsday","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-x-men"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}