Here's hoping that you like next year's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, because there's a lot more coming your way, explains former Fox exec Jeff Katz.
Katz, who was instrumental in getting the original X-Men movies, and Wolverine, made before exiting Fox earlier this year, told MTV News that the supporting roles for fan-favorite characters Gambit and Deadpool is much more cynical than you might've suspected:
The discussion is always, ‘Is this a good use of this character or do we want to save them to fully use down the line?’ — and that was the Gambit debate in the original trilogy of movies. With the original trilogy, there was also the idea that he and Wolverine would have tried to fit the same space, and it would been awkward. They understood that Gambit was popular, but was it worth just popping him in as a throwaway character, and not in service of setting up something down the line? Now I think there is a level of strategy in how we grow these things, and what characters can transition between multiple films... It’s about seeding them, and in some cases even just teasing them, so it keeps the audience between the two years between movies. It’s no different than teasing Sam Jackson at the end of ‘Iron Man.’ It’s a very basic sort of psychological thing, but it works. If you can send your fans out of that movie excited to go back in for the next round, that’s half the battle.
That next round Katz mentioned isn't necessarily a Wolverine sequel, however; Katz is already talking about a potential Deadpool spin-off. But with Wolverine, Josh Schwartz's First Class and the on-again/off-again Magneto movie (Currently on hold until the Wolverine movie is a success, apparently) already in the pipeline, are we in danger of seeing Fox destroy the X-Men franchise by milking it dry?
Deadpool And Gambit: The Long Road To ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’… And Beyond? [MTV Splash Page]