One of the biggest pieces of the Marvel puzzle that was missing from the Marvel Cinematic Universe from the beginning was the X-Men. Though the children of the atom had their own film franchise at 20th Century Fox, it appeared that these two corners that routinely cross paths in the pages of comics would never meet on the big screen. That worry was shattered after Disney bought Fox, folding the film rights to the X-Men back under Marvel’s control and setting the stage for the X-Men to be a key piece of the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward.
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To date, this has managed to give us both Deadpool & Wolverine and the (non-canon to the MCU) X-Men ’97, but a proper MCU version of the X-Men is officially on the way, and the writer behind the project has confirmed some exciting developments of how it’s shaping up. Beef creator Lee Sung Jin has been tapped to write the script for the MCU reboot of the X-Men, confirming in a new interview that the team has a “clear vision” of what they want, putting the characters that fans love at the forefront but also maintaining the team dynamic and the “soapy elements” of the comics. He added, “We’ve been in the room every day together. Kevin and Louis [D’Esposito] are so dialed in, and they have such incredible instincts that it’s been fun to just blue-sky.”
MCU X-Men Reboot Considering EVERY Character
Speaking with Deadline about working on the new MCU X-Men, Lee revealed that there’s been more freedom to consider every angle as they break the story and consider who will be on the team. By comparison to Thunderbolts, his previous Marvel movie, there were a slew of storylines and pre-existing characters that had to be accounted for so their place in the movie made sense. For X-Men, it’s a blank slate with a lot of freedom.
“Jake Schreier has such a clear vision in terms of wanting to get back to character first, and to what is exciting about those early [Chris] Claremont-run comics, which was all about team dynamics,” Lee said. “There were a lot of soapy elements to those comics. We’ve been in the room every day together. Kevin and Louis [D’Esposito] are so dialed in, and they have such incredible instincts that it’s been fun to just blue-sky.”
Lee went on to note how much a fan of the X-Men comics he was, revealing that he would watch the animated series every Saturday morning with his dad, which made the prospect of working on the movie so exciting for him. That’s when he confirmed the staggering amount of potential X-Men characters they’re considering for the new movie, adding:
“To be able to look around this Marvel conference room and have every X-Men character on the board and be able to spitball and freestyle on, ‘What about this person?’ it’s so emboldening, because you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this isn’t going to be a safe movie. This is actually going to be a really exciting new take.’”
As longtime Marvel readers know, to make a note of “Every X-Men character” being on a board is a staggering amount of potential mutants for the MCU movie. Time has already proven that there are enough characters in X-Men lore to populate its own feature film universe, and it’s worth noting that the previous movies failed to include a slew of major characters.
When considering the fact that major X-Men characters like Forge, Rachel Summers, and Mister Sinister never once showed up in the X-Men movies, the reality of what Marvel Studios could achieve with their new film is staggering. On top of that, we have to consider the characters who were not done justice in the slightest by the previous movies, characters like Kitty Pryde, Havok, and even Apocalypse, all of whom may be able to shine in the spotlight of the MCU with accurate depictions and the backdrop of even more superheroes like the Avengers and Spider-Man.
Lee offered a final tease for the new X-Men movie, noting that one of the most important things for him is the question “Would younger me want to run to the movie theater to watch this?” He added that he’s holding himself to a high standard of not wanting to play it safe, to push the X-Men so that the material is done justice, something that X-Men readers the world over will love to hear.
There is one lingering question about the MCU’s plans for the X-Men, though, and it’s one we may not know for a few years at least. Currently, it appears that Marvel Studio’s X-Men may not actually show up until after Avengers: Secret Wars, meaning 2028 at the earliest. Though rumors persist that Sadie Sink will appear as an X-Men character in this summer’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that remains unconfirmed, and perhaps doesn’t guarantee she’ll even return as that character for the X-Men.
In any event, when the X-Men do finally become a larger piece of the MCU, it will seemingly be as the franchise is rebuilding itself in the wake of Secret Wars and the “Soft reset” that comes with that. Though it remains to be seen what character will be central to the time when that time comes, it’s reassuring that Marvel hasn’t locked themselves in to just maintaining the status quo of the same seven or eight characters film fans already know. The sky is the limit with Marvel’s X-Men, and hopefully the reboot can capture that magic.
