I haven’t decided if I like Zak Penn as a writer yet. He’s got over a dozen credits to his name which range from the fantastic (X2) to the dismal (Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand). We know he is involved with this summer’s Incredible Hulk movie, but we also know Edward Norton did a rewrite on the script when he came on board.

While Penn may not be the most consistent writer, he’s not going away anytime soon. He mentioned in our interview with him that he was signed to do one of the X-Men spin-off movies. Now he’s revealed a few more details on that project.

Penn told Comic Mix that the premise of the film will be about a younger group of X-Men at the beginning of their super-hero career. Unlike the previous movies, Wolverine wouldn’t be a part of the story, so there would be no playing second fiddle to the fan favorite who has dominated the X-Men saga so far. He wouldn’t go into characters or additional details, but Penn says that the movie will address complaints about the previous movies, at least conceptually.

According to Penn, the spin-off isn’t a movie for Marvel, but a movie for Fox, which concerns me slightly. With Marvel focusing the story at least there’s some consistency with previous movies and the overall Marvel canon. If Fox is providing the impetus for the movie this may just be a cash-in with no loyalty to story or fans at all. Hopefully as a fan Penn can keep some of that from happening.

I’ll reserve judgment until we get more information. At least Penn said this was a “young X-Men” movie and not a “baby X-Men” movie. Those damn X-Babies bothered me every time they’d show up in the ‘90s. But the less said about that, the better.