X-Men Spin-off Could Star James Franco As Multiple Man

In James Franco’s next movie, The Disaster Artist, he plays enigmatic and bizarre The Room director Tommy Wiseau. Ahead of that movie’s release, though, Franco is already looking for his next strange role.

Deadline reports that 20th Century Fox is currently developing an X-Men spin-off for Franco, which would see him play Multiple Man–a mutant with the ability to instantly create clones of himself. The film would be part of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men universe, which also includes the Deadpool movies, along with the upcoming New Mutants, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and Gambit.

The project is currently in the works with Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg working on the script and Simon Kinberg producing alongside Franco. Should the film move forward, it will be Franco’s first time acting in the superhero world since he played Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.

Multiple Man, who is also known by the alter ego Jamie Madrox, was first introduced in an issue of Giant Size Fantastic Four in 1975. He first appeared on the big screen in 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. The movie portrayed him as a villain, played by Eric Dane.

Luckily, thanks to the wildly complicated timeline of the X-Men films, it would be pretty easy to act like Dane’s version of the character never happened. A similar thing happened with Deadpool, who was first introduced in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, though Ryan Reynolds played both versions of the character.