X-Men's Shawn Ashmore Keen On Fantastic Four Crossover

Shawn Ashmore, best known as Bobby ‘Iceman’ Drake in the ‘X-Men’ movies, has spoken about his excitement for the upcoming ‘Fantastic Four’ - and his hopes that the two super-teams might cross over.

Ashmore is of course far from the first to speculate on this idea. As the film rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are both owned by 20th Century Fox (the only Marvel Comics properties the studio still owns), there has long been talk of the two properties being brought together in Fox’s own equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s a notion that many fans have long been excited by - although a vocal contingent has been less than enthusiastic about the radically new direction Fox would appear to be taking with the Fantastic Four, owing to the youthful cast and the casting of black actor Michael B Jordan as the traditionally white Johnny Storm.

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Discussing the matter with ComicBook.com, Ashmore seems considerably more optimistic about the reboot than some.

"I’m excited to see the new Fantastic Four. That’s what I really want to see, that’s what I’m really curious about.I want to see that take on it. I think it would be dope to see a little crossover between the X-Men, maybe some Fantastic Four, maybe Bobby flying around with The Fantastic Four one of these days. That would be cool, wouldn’t it?"

Ashmore went on to go into greater detail on what excites him about director Josh Trank’s darker, more grounded take on Marvel’s first family.

"What I’ve always liked about Fantastic Four, and it’s completely opposite from the X-Men, is that these are not people that are born with these abilities and learned to deal with them. It’s not their given gift, it’s something that they achieve. I think it’s almost more jarring than being born with something and realizing you can do it.

"I think that’s an interesting dilemma. What would you do? We all think like, "Oh s**t man, I’d love to have superpowers, that would be incredible" but would it really? What would that transition be like, and you know what I mean?

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"It’s something that [people] keep saying of comic books, and me included, "Oh that would be awesome if I could be Bobby Drake turn into ice and do all this stuff," but I think we’ve explored some of that in the X-Men films, the ramifications of being that different.

"I think the exploration of being this quote unquote normal human being and then all of a sudden being given these weird powers. How would that affect you in real life, not in a heightened superhero thing where it’s like, "Oh great now I can fly and do all these things." There would probably be some really interesting psychological changes that you’d have to come to term with.

"I think that’s what I’ve liked about The Fantastic Four. Maybe that will be the exploration, maybe it won’t be, but that, to me, is what I think is interesting about their particular story."

Ashmore was one of the original ‘X-Men’ actors, part of the team since the 2000 original, and returning for ‘X2,’ ‘X-Men 3: the Last Stand,’ and last year’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past.’

Whether he will be seen again in an X-Men movie anytime soon would seem doubtful, given the next installment - next year’s ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ - follows the ‘First Class’/’Days of Future Past’ prequel chronology into the 1980s, which could conceivably spell the end for the original X-movie continuity, for the foreseeable future at least.

This would also potentially put a spanner in the works regarding a crossover with the Fantastic Four, as the upcoming reboot is believed to be set in the present day. Still - anything’s possible in superhero movies, so perhaps we might yet see the Human Torch and Iceman fighting side by side. We know one of them’s up for it, at least.

'Fantastic Four' hits cinemas on 7 August 2015 (with a sequel already pencilled in for June 2017), whilst 'X-Men: Apocalypse' lands on 27 May 2016.

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Picture Credit: 20th Century Fox