Stories are beginning to pick up on the Internet that an X-Men 4 is coming. Well to be quite honest you have to be amazingly hopeful and fanatical to see a direct sequel happening. I've been talking about this a lot and there's no need for them to make a direct sequel, neither is there a bank balance big enough, and as much is starting to be said.

From LA Daily News through Rope of Silicon we here the possibilities from the Producer Lauren Schuler Donner herself:

"The newer cast members are signed, and the older cast members are not." Considering the older names involved -- Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Romijn, Famke Janssen and Anna Paquin -- that could run into a huge chunk of money...

..."Next, we're going to do 'Wolverine,' but not before the end of the year because he's in the Baz Luhrmann film...We have the script and are working on it...We also have 'Young Magneto' in development."

Okay, so step back and take a few deep breaths. Let's look at this for a moment...

Just because actors have a clause in a contract that they signed for one film that says they will agree to a sequel, does not mean that the sequel will be made. These are signed all the time and don't come to fruition, it's in order to secure the talent in case the plans go ahead to make another, and the decisions are not on profit alone...well, not always!

Consider also the cost of getting all the X-Men names back on board. They're going to have enough trouble and cost getting Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, that's a whole bundle of budget right there, and let's not even start down the rest of the cast list of the previous films, all of whom are growing bigger and bigger.

So getting the previous talent back is going to be hugely expensive, and they've been smart to secure the younger talents introduced in the previous movie. They are much cheaper, and have a placeholder in their schedules. So we're not likely to see a direct sequel, it's going to cost way too much to get back that cast, but hold up, there's more.

So we're going to get Wolverine and Magneto movies most likely back to back, releasing them at the same time would be too much, after all these are X-Men movies, albeit not direct sequels. Wolverine seems to be the one tipped to be first, and that's going to have to wait until after the Luhrmann epic, which is already being delayed and delayed again.

It could be 2008 or even 2009 before we see these two films completed, and then where will the smaller talents of the younger cast from this last X-Men be? Despite having the placeholder in their schedules, they are still free to sign up to new films until the production team announce rough dates to them and a desire to move ahead.

With all this uncertainty and cost I can't see a direct sequel being made, it would cost far too much just to get the actors on set, and with that kind of cost you'll need a mammoth return, so you need a huge director who's no risk at all. I can't see that.

So what of a slight spin off, perhaps the new X-Men with the all young team? Well, I can see that happening, but it's going to be a good few years off. They aren't going to want to flood the market with too many X-Men spin offs at once are they? Wolverine, Magneto and then a young X-Men? That's a long wait.

The other question is why would they want a directly named sequel? The continuation of the series is happening now with Wolverine, which could be titled X-Men 4: Wolverine, and Magneto, which could be titled X-Men 4: The Prequel. Considering the cast for Magneto is starting to collect some of the major stars from the X-Men series to date (Stewart, McKellan and Romijn is in talks) it's certainly looking that way.

What do you think of all this? Do you agree that really they are already continuing the franchise? Is there still a chance for a direct sequel, or is it all set for spin offs galore?