Ever since Disney acquired the film rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have waiting to see these superhero teams join the franchise. The former will finally get their time to shine when The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in July, but we’re still a long ways off from getting the X-Men reboot. I’ve been waiting for another major update about how the upcoming Marvel movie is coming along, and said update finally arrived today, because I’m excited about who’s being eyed as the director.
Fresh off Thunderbolts*’ arrival to the 2025 movies schedule, Deadline reports that director Jake Schreier is in early talks to direct the X-Men reboot. While it’s unclear where things stand in the negotiation process, Schreier is apparently Marvel Studios’ “top choice” for the project. If the filmmaker decides to take on X-Men, he’ll be directing off a script written by Michael Lesslie.
Now to be clear, it’s not like X-Men characters haven’t been getting their time to shine in the MCU since The Multiverse Saga began. Patrick Stewart appeared as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Kelsey Grammer cameoed as Beast in The Marvels, and Deadpool & Wolverine essentially served as a love letter to Fox’s X-Men film series. It’s also been announced that Stewart, Grammer, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming and James Marsden will all reprise their respective X-Men roles in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday.
But eventually there’s going to come a time when Marvel moves past the Fox era for good and introduces a brand-new X-Men team, presumably within the main MCU reality. That’s where this X-Men reboot comes in, and I’m hoping that Jake Schreier and Marvel can work out a deal so he can lead the charge on ushering in this new era. Aside from Thunderbolts*, Schreier directed the movies Robot & Frank and Paper Towns, as well as episodes of TV shows like Lodge 49, Kidding, Beef and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Our own Eric Eisenberg’s thoughts penned in his Thunderbolts* review pretty much align with mine, although I give it a slightly higher score. I thought Jake Schreier did an excellent job with depicting this disparate team of anti-heroes/former villain and having them come together in spite of their clashing personalities. It’s the same kind of vibe I want from the X-Men reboot, albeit with more traditional superheroes.
It’s hard to say when we’ll learn if Schreier will take on X-Men directorial duties or if that job will go to someone else. My fingers are crossed it’ll be the former, but either way, maybe I’ll pass the time until then by revisiting the older X-Men movies with my Disney+ subscription.
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