Disney is finally gearing up for the next big saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! While this mutant team isn’t new to comic book fans or moviegoers, Disney’s acquisition of these characters has been decades in the making! And, chances are, their stories will take just as long to unfold on the big screen. That’s why Disney and Marvel Studios are looking to bring the X-Men into the MCU the right way…they just don’t quite know what that way is yet. Do you?
Now’s the time to act if you have the next big idea for Charles Xavier and his heroic misfits because Marvel Studios is reportedly scheduling pitch meetings with potential X-Men writers for the fall! Now that the approximately 5-month-long WGA writer’s strike has come to an end, all kinds of projects are beginning to pick back up, and fans echo each other’s sighs of “finally!”
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Deadline describes Disney’s X-Men movie writing opportunity as “one of the more sought-after jobs,” and Marvel will most likely take its sweet time in filling the position. Fans shouldn’t expect an official announcement about who booked the gig until at least early 2024. However, the race is certainly on.
Now branded on Disney Plus as “Mutant Legacy” films, the 20th Century Fox X-Men franchise focuses on mutants, AKA individuals born with superhuman abilities, who are often faced with discrimination and prejudice in society. The film series began with X-Men in 2000, directed by Bryan Singer, and introduced the core group of Professor Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart), Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman), Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm (played by Halle Berry), and Rogue. It centered around the group’s conflict with Magneto (played by Ian McKellan).
The franchise continued with multiple sequels and spin-offs, such as X2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019). 2020 also saw X-Men: The New Mutants, which explored a group of young mutants discovering their powers and marked the last film made before Marvel Studios’ acquisition. There have also been standalone films focusing on specific X-Men characters like Wolverine, including X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), The Wolverine (2013), and Logan (2017).
Adjacent is the foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Deadpool, popularized by actor Ryan Reynolds in the 2016 X-Men spin-off film and 2018 sequel. This is where things started to cross over more blatantly! When Disney acquired Fox, Marvel regained the film rights to the characters and immediately started folding them in. Patrick Stewart returned as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) in an alternate timeline, and Deadpool 3 has already wildly advertised Hugh Jackman’s involvement as Wolverine alongside Ryan Reynolds, expected to release in 2024.
While Jackman has secured his spot as Wolverine in the MCU, Disney is expected to reboot the franchise with a new set of faces on the team.
