‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ Breaks a Tradition Tying It to the X-Men

Final Destination Bloodlines is the long-awaited return of the iconic horror franchise. As hard as it might be to believe, it has been 14 years since the previous entry in the franchise, Final Destination 5, hit theaters. That also means it has been 25 years since the series started in 2000 with what seemed like a standard mid-budget horror film, Final Destination. This sixth entry in the franchise both continues the series and serves as a new jumping-on point for viewers, hence the subtitle Bloodlines, as opposed to a very daunting “6,” which would imply audiences have a certain level of familiarity with prior films.

Fans familiar with the Final Destination series will know that a good part of the movie’s mythology is finding patterns and looking for signs about how Death will finally get someone who cheated it. Final Destination Bloodlines‘ decision to release in 2025 breaks a long-running pattern, but did so without anyone noticing. While it won’t spell box-office doom for Final Destination Bloodlines (as it looks at the biggest opening weekend in the franchise’s history), this marks the first time a Final Destination movie doesn’t open the same year as an X-Men movie.

‘Final Destination’ and ‘X-Men’s Hidden History

X-Men? What does a horror franchise about Death killing people in elaborate Rube Goldberg-type traps have in common with a superhero series? Aside from Final Destination originating as a spec script for The X-Files and therefore linking the two franchises by the 24th letter in the alphabet, for over a decade, a Final Destination film and an X-Men movie would open in the same year. The first five films in the X-Men franchise were released the same year as all five entries in the original Final Destination saga. See the chart below.

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For The Final Destination, the fourth film in the franchise and originally intended to be the final film, New Line Cinema decided to give it a summer release date, though it avoided a lot of big competition by opening over Labor Day weekend. With a big 3D gimmick, four months before Avatar would have every studio converting their films to the format, New Line was confident in their decision, and that meant 2009’s summer movie season began with an X-Men film and ended with a Final Destination movie.

2011 saw the release of X-Men: First Class and Final Destination 5, both prequels to the events of their respective original 2000 films. Final Destination 5 put the horror franchise on hold until the recent release of Final Destination Bloodlines, ​​​​​​while the X-Men films kept moving with eight new entries (nine if you consider Deadpool & Wolverine to be a low-key X-Men movie). With Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024 and the X-Men-centric Avengers: Doomsday in 2026, Final Destination Bloodlines is being released between the two films, missing out on a pairing between the two connected franchises.

‘Final Destination’ and ‘X-Men’ Have Grown Together

While 2025 marks the first time that the X-Men and Final Destination franchises have not opened in the same year, it is interesting to look at where both franchises are now. Both franchises are largely operating off their original continuity, with Final Destination Bloodlines not only adding a grander mythology to the prior entries but also bringing back actor Tony Todd for what will now be his last posthumous release. Meanwhile, names like James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romiljn, and Kelsey Grammer are returning to play their X-Men roles in Avengers: Doomsday despite having been recast with younger actors for the 2010 prequel series.

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Yet despite both relying heavily on the past, they are also looking at bright new futures. Final Destination Bloodlines is both a sixth entry and a new starting point in the series, using the 14-year gap between releases to court nostalgic audiences who grew up with the original films, but also a new, younger audience who never got to see the original films in theaters. Meanwhile, despite bringing back many of the original X-Men for Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel Studios is also looking to reboot the franchise following Avengers: Secret Wars. The classic X-Men are getting their final bow before a new era of the X-Men film series begins.

Looking forward, if Marvel Studios picks X-Men as one of their titles for their 20th anniversary, then there is a chance order will be restored, and Final Destination and X-Men will be released alongside each other once again.