X-Men Spinoff Kitty Pryde Movie Still Being Worked on by Brian Michael Bendis

Former All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis says he’s still developing an [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

Former All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis says he's still developing an X-Verse spinoff centered around phase-shifting mutant Kitty Pryde.

"Yeah, I'm working on it right now," Bendis tweeted Sunday when asked about the status of the spinoff. "It's vvvvvvvery surreal and delightful to be so deep inside the X mansion and the fortress of solitude at the same time."

Bendis has since joined DC Comics, where he primarily pens Superman, hence the mention of his secret headquarters.

Last February, it was learned Bendis was penning the planned Kitty Pryde movie for Deadpool director Tim Miller, who exited that franchise following creative differences with star and producer Ryan Reynolds.

Miller is attached to the project under working title "143," likely a nod to Chris Claremont and John Byrne's Uncanny X-Men #143, which follows Pryde warding off an invading N'Garai demon when left behind alone at the X-Mansion during the Christmas season.

The Shadowcat movie is one of several Marvel Comics-inspired projects that could be scrapped by soon-to-be owners Disney, who are now in the process of completing its $71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox.

The studio was planning such X-Men spinoffs as X-Force, Gambit and Multiple Man alongside Fantastic Four offshoots Doctor Doom, Silver Surfer and a younger-skewed movie centered around Franklin and Valeria Richards, the children of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.

Deadpool and X-Force creator Rob Liefeld pegged the intended X-Force movie as dead on arrival in a January tweet, where he called the Deadpool 2 spinoff a "victim of the merger." The looming merger has been projected to close in March after Disney won its bidding war for Fox in December 2017.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said previously it "only makes sense" to integrate the Marvel characters reclaimed from Fox under the purview of Marvel Cinematic Universe architect Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios, where the characters can be "supervised by one entity." Iger also said "there shouldn't be two Marvels."

Though Feige has yet to reveal if Marvel intends to reboot the near 20-year-running X-Men movies continuity, the belief is the franchise will restart when being folded into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it has been legally prohibited from involving "mutants."

Juno star Ellen Page previously portrayed Kitty Pryde in X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Fox's '90s-set X-Men sequel, Dark Phoenix, releases June 7.

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