I’m currently watching Deadpool on Netflix – such a good movie – and it occurs to me that in just over a year’s time, the X-Men films as we know them now will be all but done and dusted. And when I say “done and dusted”, I mean put to bed for good.

Deadpool 2 will be a distant memory, X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be finishing out its cinematic run and the long delayed New Mutants will be gearing up for one final hurrah – that’s if it doesn’t get pushed back again. Disney will have taken over the X-Men franchise and 20th Century Fox’s two-decade run of X-Men films will be almost at an end.

I’m a little bit sad about this.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Disney/Marvel Studios taking back its missing Marvel characters, as part of the much reported Disney/Fox buy-out, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be upset to see the X-Men (as we know them) fade away. Yeah, there have been mistakes along the way *cough* Storm/Angel/Apocalypse/Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique *cough*, but the good has far outweighed the bad.

X2, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Logan and Deadpool are great movies and some of the best superhero films in the entire genre, while TV spin-off shows Legion and The Gifted aren’t half bad either. Put simply, there’s a lot to like in the current X-Universe and a lot that will simply end come next summer.

Last year, when Logan hit cinema screens I felt that the X-franchise should have been retired with that movie – after all, Logan would have been one hell of a film to bow out on. However, now that I’ve had time to get used to the idea of Hugh Jackman no longer being part of the franchise, I feel like maybe it should carry on.

Hear me out.

Watching Deadpool (again) convinces me that Wade Wilson could easily take on the role that Logan/Hugh Jackman has held within the franchise – i.e. the backbone of the series. It’s just a shame that won’t happen.

Unless…

…Disney decide to keep Deadpool/Ryan Reynolds on after the big change over. And let’s be honest, with the way in which the character breaks the fourth-wall all the time, it’s entirely feasible that he could remain on board even during a reboot.

But let’s just presume that’s not going to happen and we’re currently on the path towards the end. Are we ready to say goodbye?

I know not everyone likes the way Fox have handled the X-Men and many are ready to see Wolverine and Co. integrated into the MCU, but that doesn’t mean that a standalone universe for the X-Men isn’t still the right way forward for the characters. I’ve always felt that the X-Men work best when they’re not part of the sprawling Marvel Universe and I for one would like them to remain separate.

Bring the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe by all means, but maybe leave the X-Men where they are – at least for now. Let Deadpool take charge and keep this series going for a little longer or give us one last (HUGE) X-Men movie to complete this journey we’ve all been on.

Please.

Let’s not let this series end with a film that was never designed to conclude the 13-movie franchise.