After helping bring the X-Men to the screen in the early 2000’s at Fox, Marvel Studios Head Honcho Kevin Feige is preparing to do so again, this time as a flagship property at Marvel Studios. With a script being written now, X-Men is primed to launch the studio’s post-Multiverse Saga plans in 2028.
Feige has entrusted the first of what will be many X-projects to Jake Schreier, whose work on Thunderbolts* helped boost Marvel back toward the stratosphere the studio had inhabited for well over a decade before coming back down to Earth following a string of disappointing projects. Ahead of the release of Thunderbolts* on physical media, Schreier met with The Playlist and, for the first time, discussed taking on X-Men.
Jake’s going to make a youth-focused reboot. That may be reflected in mutant castings, and it’ll definitely be felt in the tone and perspective of the film.
-Kevin Feige
“I mean, yeah, without going into too much—really almost any detail,” said Schreier when asked if he could talk about his involvement with the new Marvel Studios project. “What I can say is, it’s just inherently interesting and complex material. The core idea of what X-Men is involves complexity,” he added.
Since launching during the Civil Rights Movement, X-Men stories have always been subtextually complex, featuring characters who are often feared and hated for being different, something Schreier looks to putting front and center in his film. “It’s an incredible opportunity with super interesting characters and [much] internal conflict. These characters are wrestling with their identity and place in the world—that’s inherently interesting and complex material,” said Schreier.
They have been a place to tell stories about young people who feel different and who feel Other and who feel like they don’t belong. That’s the universal story of mutants, and that is where we’re going.
As with Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four: First Steps, X-Men will need to be fundamentally different from Fox’s previous big screen efforts. While Schreier chose not to elaborate on how the studio will accomplish that, he did confirm the studio’s plans to set the new film apart from the films in the Fox franchise. “Yeah, I think that’s fair to say,” said Schreier when asked if his film would be “recognizably different” from the prior projects, adding “There’s that red sniper dot out there somewhere, you know…“
It seems unlikely that Marvel sniper will be coming for Schreier, however, as he seems not only to have a handle on how to bring a fresh perspective to a genre that continues to fight audience fatigue (whether real or imagined) but also stay true to the stories that made fans fall in love with the characters. “…to be able to explore all of the ideas that are inherent to that rich source material, but also at the scale inherent to the source material, that’s like a very rare and fortunate opportunity. That’s very exciting,” he said. With enough ideas in the source material to last a decade or more, it is indeed a very exciting time for X-Men fans.
Sources: The Playlist
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