James Franco likely to star as Mutiple Man in X-Men's standalone film

James Franco has decided to hitch his ride on the superhero bandwagon too. Variety reports  that Franco is in negotiations with Fox for the little known X-Men mutant character Multiple Man. The studio is also trying to bag the Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg to write the script and will be produced by Simon Kinberg who is currently directing the next X-Men offering X-Men: Dark Phoenix .

The character of Multiple Man has an interesting history as it is not the most popular mutant offering from the X-men universe, and has appeared once before in a minor appearance as a villain associated with Magneto in The Last Stand , the final film of the now discontinued timeline of the original X-Men trilogy.

In Marvel Comics, Multiple Man aka Jamie Madrox, as the name suggests, is a mutant born with the ability to make multiple clones of himself instantly. Originally a minor character, Jamie came to prominence in Peter David’s X-Factor series from the 1990s, which also featured many other lesser known mutants from the X-Men universe, as reported by Den Of Geek.

Multiple Man might join the other X-Men movies’ timelines which are currently in production by 20th Century Fox. The exciting lineup includes Josh Boone’s The New Mutants , followed by  Deadpool 2,  X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and a  Gambit  movie, which is an X-Men spinoff starring Channing Tatum.

James Franco seems set for a similar launch in the X-Men universe although it remains to be seen where, or how the Multiple Man storyline will fit in this expanding X-men universe, or he will make a cameo appearance in one of these releases to introduce the obscure character to whet audience’s appetite prior to a standalone film.