Predicting 20th Century Fox's Marvel movie release date lineup is a bit like reading tea leaves. Tentpole feature release date schedules are, of course, subject to change, but Fox's franchises have been particularly unstable. The futures of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universes are transparent several years out, but we know very little about what's going on with Fox's X-Men and Fantastic Four lineups beyond next March's Logan.

A follow-up to X-Men: Apocalypse has been promised, though the ill critical reception and lackluster box office have fans wondering if Fox might take the series another way. Gambit was originally promised for late 2016 but hasn't begun production yet and recently lost another director. A New Mutants film has been said be in development, but no solid information has surfaced about the project. The reboot of Fantastic Four bombed so hard that fans were left wondering if Fox might simply give up the franchise for good, though producer Simon Kinberg promises that's not the case. At this point, the only film that seems like an absolute given is Deadpool 2, which still doesn't have an official release date and has recently struggled through a directorial change-of-guard.

Amidst the turmoil, 20th Century Fox has offered up two new goalposts for fans to look forward to. Courtesy of BoxOffice.com, release dates for two new Marvel films (and one from James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment) as far out as February 2019.

The Lightstorm film is likely the first sequel to Avatar, which has previously been announced for December 2018. So what are the Marvel films that may be filling these additional slots? The recently announced Deadpool 3 is a very likely candidate for the February 14, 2019 slot. The first film released during 2016's Valentines Day weekend and broke records for both the month and for R-rated films as a whole. Fox is unlikely to want to fix what isn't broken. Deadpool 2 is rumored to set up an R-rated X-Force film. It's possible that this film will pre-date the 3rd Deadpool and fall in the November 2018 slot.

Assuming no previous dates have been dropped, [UPDATE: October 6th, 2017 has been officially overtaken by Kingsman: The Golden Circle] that leaves the new schedule looking like this:

• March 3rd, 2017 - Logan
• March 2nd, 2018 - Unannounced (possibly Deadpool 2)
• June 29th, 2018 - Unannounced (possibly New Mutants)
• November 2nd, 2018 - Unannounced (possibly Gambit, X-Force, or the untitled young X-Men sequel)
• February 14, 2019 - Unannounced (possibly Deadpool 3)

Our guesses are based on where we assume the films are in development, as well as times of the year that Fox has expressed interest in dropping the films in question in the past. It's worth noting that these new dates avoid veering close to any MCU or DCEU films by a wide margin.

Stay tuned to Screen Rant for updates on Fox's Marvel lineup as they hit.

Source: BoxOffice.com