James Franco to Star in X-Men Spin-Off Movie About Multiple Man

Fox continues to make interesting and bold decisions regarding its X-Men movie franchise following the successes of R-rated raunch-fest Deadpool and R-rated Western Logan. Fox is still trotting out movies about the classic mutants, with X-Men: Dark Phoenix due out next November, but studio is  introducing an entirely new batch of young new mutants in the horror-tinged The New Mutants and Deadline has now revealed that Simon Kinberg and James Franco are producing a movie about Jamie “Mutliple Man” Madrox with Franco in the starring role.

Multiple Man is definitely a C-list member of the pantheon of X-Men characters, but he would be very interesting to explore with the right script and Fox has Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg working on it.  Madrox has the ability to instantly create identical clones of himself — clothes and all — whenever he absorbs kinetic energy from impacts, such as from a slap or punch. The clones can then pass on any information they have learned to the original Madrox when he re-absorbs them.

Madrox’s comic book adventures have been pretty heady at times, with the character questioning his own identity as the “original” and having qualms about re-absorbing clones that tried to run away to live their own lives. There’s plenty of fertile material for a Heinberg and Franco to dive into with this character so this is more good news from Fox.