X-Force movie maybe dead but was Drew Goddard right for it to begin with?

The X-Force movie and others under Fox could be dead, but since the cancellation of Sinister Six for Sony was Drew Goddard right to direct?

Ever since the Disney-Fox merger, a lot of the Marvel productions under 20th Century Fox that are either about to hit theaters (which have been met with delays) or are in various stages of development, such as X–Men: Dark Phoenix, New Mutants, Gambit and X-Force have been put under question. There have even been conversations of placing New Mutants on Hulu.

As for the X–Force movie helmed by Drew Goddard, it appeared to be another FOX property that is about to become the victim of being under the blade of the ax: the ax of corporate politics. Comic book creator, Rob Liefeld, mentioned the project from Goddard and shared a tweet via Twitter, which he passed on from an insider known as user @DanielRPK – Daniel Richtman. In the tweet he stated X–Force was not “officially dead”.

Goddard was announced in 2017 to be the writer and director of the X–Force, at which point he took over scripting duties from Joe Carnahan. Jeff Wadlow was attached as director as far back as 2013, but all things changed when X–Force was put on the backburner due to the success of Deadpool.

Goddard, of The Cabin in the Woods and last year’s Bad Times at the El Royale, previously was tapped to write and direct Spider–Man movie spin-off, the Sinister Six, but things broke down after the infamous 2014 Sony hack and when The Amazing Spider–Man 2 underperformed. Goddard has a good relationship with Marvel, which is evident with some of the projects he was offered. He was even offered to direct the latest Spider-Man reboot, which became Spider–Man: Homecoming, but Jon Watts was at the helm instead. Though is Goddard right for the X–Force movie?

So far, from his track record with Marvel, Goddard, executive produced for Netflix’s Daredevil and handed over the duties of a showrunner to Steven S. DeKnight as he remained focused on the Sinister Six, but remained a consultant on subsequent seasons of Daredevil. What does this show of Goddard in terms of his résumé? That on the one hand, a relatively successful film and TV writer/producer with two credits of some features he directed under his belt has either been unlucky to not be able to stay on a Marvel project due to unforeseen circumstances or there is a hint of confidence that is lacking on the FOX lot.

Goddard has a talent in his writing for evenly–paced character arcs in storylines that contain thought–provoking interactions, and in the case of The Martian, an inner monologue of scenarios a singular protagonist must overcome internally and externally. As for direction, Goddard is definitely an auteur in his own right. He tends to favor substance over style, but when he does evoke style, the setting is poetically a character in of itself. Take for example the deserted cabin in the forest in Cabin in the Woods and a shady hotel in Bad Times at the El Royale.

In an interview with IGN back in 2015, Goddard discussed what his movie, Sinister Six, would have been about. From the sounds of it, he was not going for a versus film, but something similar in tone to The Dirty Dozen or Reservoir Dogs. Back in July 2018, Goddard shared his influences for his upcoming X–Force movie, with NBC fantasy-comedy series, The Good Place. Goddard is the right choice for this work, mainly for his grasp of tone and managing characters.