I'm such a nerd.

After X-Men First Class came out and re-established Marvel's world of mutants as a franchise to be reckoned with there are sure to be more movies. Right now the most next movie that's probably going to come out is The Wolverine. Finally after being delayed so many times they have a script, directer and now shooting can begin in spring of 2012 when Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) finishes what he's currently doing. The Wolverine is expected to see the character in Japan, perhaps following the plot of the original Chris Claremont/Frank Miller comic book miniseries. Wolverine stories set in Japan have traditionally played up the divide between the honourable man and the savage berserker that makes Wolverine so compelling as a character.
 
Although it’s tempting to call this X-Men: Second Class the next most probable entry in the X-Men franchise is an X-Men: First Class sequel. Director Matthew Vaughn seems interested in returning, as do the principal cast, but it’s not entirely clear where the story might go following the lead of the original. Hints, however, have been dropped.  Politically, the sixties offers plenty of opportunity for allegorical backdrops, from the Vietnam war to the Civil Rights movement to the increased visibility of alternative lifestyles. Vaughn has already suggested that the sequel could open with Magneto being shown as the man responsible for the Kennedy Assassination. Also confirmed are plans to add 'one more character' to the mix – a villain who can go toe-to-toe with Magneto in a role similar to Sebastian Shaw’s in the first. It’s hard to think who that might be, but we’re at least hoping for Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr. Sinister - a long-lived mutant geneticist as intelligent as Magneto and Xavier (but with little interest in their respective philosophies) and one of the major villains that the franchise has yet to touch. A moment of speculation, it’s a choice that would conveniently lead to the use of Apocalypse in the third film. That would be awesome if Apocalypse was in it!


X-Men four (After X-Men the Last Stand) is an interesting topic. If you've been looking you'll find hints that something like this would have happened by now. The hints are things like a scene in the credits of a movie (It happened!) or at the end of The Last Stand seeing Magneto try to move the chess piece and it moves, if only a little. So it does look like there is to be another but after five years it does seem rather doubtful. However one of the producers of the previous X-Men movies, Lauren Shuler Donner, claims that the film is in “active development” at Fox following their acceptance of the latest treatment. It might not be as simple as that, of course. With most of the principal cast dead or de-powered, there was the pungent whiff of contract negotiations surrounding the plot of X-Men: The Last Stand, and any of the bigger actors spoiling for a pay rise might find themselves left on the benches, or otherwise re-cast - although aside from Hugh Jackman, no cast member is really irreplaceable, especially considering that a made-up Fassbender/McAvoy could prove acceptable replacements for the otherwise unassailable McKellen/Stewart pairing. Story-wise, we’ve only been told one thing about the idea being pitched: that the X-Men 4 story will lead into X-Men 5. Donner has, in the past, expressed an interest in doing Days of Future Past, the seminal alternate-future X-Men storyline, but at this point it really is wide open. 


But that said… there’s still a Deadpool treatment floating around somewhere (with Ryan Reynolds, keen to star), and everyone from Taylor Kitsch to James Marsden to Tyler Mane has expressed an interest in reprising their X-franchise roles, however dead or forgotten their characters may be. That's the confusing thing, if the character is dead, take Scott (James Marsden) for example. He was killed by Jean so how could he come back?
It’s true that we don’t think a Gambit solo movie is all that likely right now (Which is a bummer to me cause I think he shoulda gotten one before Deadpool but w/e) - but remember, the X-Men franchise is controlled by the same studio who spun off Elektra just because they could.
All it’s going to take is for one of those guys to co-star in one big hit action movie, and they could find themselves on a fast-track to their own X-Men spin-off. And hey, when True Blood eventually finishes, Anna Paquin’s going to need something to do with her time…