The original X-Men movie, released back in 2000, helped jumpstart the superhero movie boom of the 21st century and gave 20th Century Fox a tentpole franchise. Now, more than two decades later, the mutants are being positioned to help jumpstart a new era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Secret Wars wraps up the Multiverse Saga. Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier has been tapped to spearhead an X-Men reboot for Marvel Studios. The film is still a ways away from hitting the big screen, but the creative team is already hard at work at putting the pieces together.
In an interview with Empire, Schreier shared that he has “started work on X-Men,” which he finds “very, very exciting.” He spoke about how his experience on Thunderbolts* will inform his next MCU adventure. “There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started [Thunderbolts*],” he said. “The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it’s more shooting days than I’ve ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, ‘Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.’”
Marvel Studios Has Big Plans for the X-Men in the MCU
Before Schreier’s film is ready to go, fans will be reacquainted with some of the veteran X-Men cast members from the Fox years, as a handful of those actors are returning for Avengers: Doomsday. After that, there’s a good chance Schreier’s X-Men become the main driving force for the MCU. Reports indicate that Kevin Feige has a 10-year plan in mind for the characters, leading some to believe the franchise’s next overarching storyline will be called the Mutant Saga.
Placing the X-Men front and center at the start of the MCU’s next era would make a lot of sense. Feige has described Secret Wars as a “reset” for the franchise, and given the popularity of the X-Men, it’d be logical to build a film saga around them. Marvel movies are no longer the box office draws they once were; several Multiverse Saga projects, including a couple released this year, underperformed commercially. In the aftermath, reports have suggested Marvel could change how it conducts business, perhaps only giving films to premier characters that are reliable draws (Spider-Man, the Avengers). Fox’s X-Men films varied in quality, but with a few exceptions, the series performed well at the box office.
Schreier seems like the perfect choice to usher the X-Men into this new era. While Thunderbolts* posted low box office numbers, the film earned very positive reviews. That reception is what led Marvel to hire Schreier for the X-Men job. On Thunderbolts*, he demonstrated a deftness in telling a team-based story, primarily focusing on the characters’ emotional journeys. Thunderbolts* received praise for its handling of serious themes such as mental health. The best X-Men narratives strike a balance between exciting superhero action and poignant social commentary, and Schreier should be able to deliver a film that serves up escapism and food for thought in equal measure.
Other than the cast, the biggest question surrounding Marvel’s X-Men reboot is when fans will be able to see it. Ever since Disney secured a December 2028 release date for a mystery MCU film, fans have speculated that’ll be where X-Men debuts. That would put the film in the heart of the lucrative holiday season, making it an ideal launchpad for the new age of the MCU. As Marvel gears up for the culmination of the Multiverse Saga, the focus will be on the upcoming Avengers films and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but hopefully there are some X-Men updates in there as well.