20th Century Fox's roadmap for its Marvel Film Universe over the next few years includes Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past - which unites the older present-day X-Men trilogy and younger X-Men: First Class casts - arriving this May, Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot releasing in 2015, and then X-Men: Apocalypse (the conclusion to the First Class trilogy) hitting theaters in 2016.

There are a handful of additional X-Men project is some stage of development right now, though Wolverine 3 - a.k.a. the sequel to The Wolverine - is the one that's been showing the most signs of activity in recent months, with director James Mangold having just announced this past week that he anticipates production getting started after Apocalypse is finished.

Fox has now made that official, having announced a March 3rd, 2017 release date for Mangold's next Wolverine installment - one that could conceivably be star Hugh Jackman's final outing as the metal-clawed Logan, no less. In addition, the studio has taken a leaf from Sony's playbook for The Amazing Spider-Man franchise and staked out a July 14th, 2017 date for Fantastic Four 2 - even as Trank's reboot is in the process of finalizing its cast roster ahead of principal photography getting underway within a month or two.

Beyond that, the studio has staked out July 13th, 2018 as the release date for a currently under-wraps Marvel film. The list of potential candidates for that date includes the X-Force movie written by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2), a proposed Gambit feature starring Channing Tatum that's still awaiting an official green light, and the rumored X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover that Simon Kinberg (who penned Days of Future Past and Trank's F4 reboot) may be helping to lay the groundwork for.

Taken 3 gets a 2015 release date

In non-comic book/superhero genre-related news, Fox has also set a January 9th, 2015 launch date for Taken 3, the third installment in the highly profitable Liam Neeson Euro-thriller series co-written and produced by Luc Besson. A director has yet to be officially announced for the project, though Neeson's Taken 1 & 2 costars Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen were confirmed as cast members last week; expect an update in the near future, as production will have to get going very soon.

Additionally, Fox has changed dates for a few upcoming films:

  • The Secret Service - Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of the Mark Millar espionage comic book - has switched its previous March 6th, 2015 date with an untitled Vince Vaughn movie; it will now open in theaters on October 24th, 2014, where it faces low-budget horror offerings Ouija and Paranormal Activity 5.
  • Frankenstein - a retelling of the Mary Shelley sci-fi/horror classic starring Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, and Jessica Brown Findlay - has moved back from January 16th, 2015 to October 2nd later that year. The date is currently unoccupied, though Disney's live-action The Jungle Book is scheduled to arrive a week later.

Finally, the studio also set an unspecified Ridley Scott project for release on March 4th, 2016. The hard-working director previously indicated that his followup to his Biblical blockbuster Exodus (which opens December 2014) will be a sci-fi offering, though that only partially narrows the list of possibilities - as Scott currently has three projects that fall under that genre's jurisdiction in development: a Prometheus sequel, a second installment set in the Blade Runner universe (though WB distributed the first movie), and the novel adaptation The Forever War.

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The Secret Service opens in U.S. theaters on October 24th, 2014. Taken 3 arrives thereafter on January 9th, 2015, followed by Frankenstein on October 2nd, 2015, and a currently-unspecified Ridley Scott feature on March 4th, 2016.

As for the Fox/Marvel film universe release slate: X-Men: Days of Future Past arrives in U.S. theaters on May 23rd, 2014, followed by Fantastic Four on June 19th, 2015, X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27th, 2016, The Wolverine 3 (not the official title) on March 3rd, 2017, Fantastic Four 2 on July 14th, 2017, and an unspecified Marvel film on July 13th, 2018.

Source: 20th Century Fox