As the sixth anniversary of Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox approaches, Marvel Studios has done very little with the treasure trove of live-action rights that fell to them in the merger. While Deadpool & Wolverine was a box office success for the company and Hugh Jackman‘s return as the best their is at what he does was a wonderful treat, it’s safe to say that Wade Wilson was well down the list of characters MCU fans were anticipating to appear.
That’s all about to change, of course, as Marvel’s First Family, The Fantastic Four, will make their MCU debut this summer. And then, there’ the X-Men. Though mutants have been sparsely sprinkled into several projects over the past few years, fans are craving an all-new take on Marvel’s Children of the Atom and things are indeed gathering some Juggernaut-ish momentum on that front.
Last spring, Michael Lesslie was tasked with scripting Marvel Studios’ first X-Men film. While Kevin Feige has yet to publicly reveal too much about the film, he has made it clear that even though “some X-Men players that you might recognize” will appear before the end of the Multiverse Saga, the mutant heroes won’t take center stage until after 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.
Right after that, the whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men.
Kevin Feige
However, an infinite multiverse allows for infinite storytelling possibilities, including the introduction of a few major muties before they move into the spotlight. Rumors have made the rounds that Lesslie’s script focuses on an X-team that closely resembles the roster of heroes from Marvel Animation’s very popular and successful X-Men ’97. As expected, original X-Man Jean Grey would be among those characters and recent reports indicated that Marvel is already looking at actresses to fill that role. Now, a new rumor from a trusted Marvel insider claims that Marvel is also looking to fill the role of another X-Men ’97 star in addition to one of Feige’s favorite characters.
According to Daniel Richtman, Marvel Studios has begun the process of casting for the roles of Remy LeBeau and Kitty Pryde.
The news is consistent with an earlier report from Richtman in which he claimed Gambit and Shadowcat were the leads in an early draft of Lesslie’s script. The news that the studio is looking for a new actor to portray Gambit will certainly be disappointing to fans of Channing Tatum‘s version of the character seen in Deadpool & Wolverine; however, there’s always hope that Tatum will be one of those recognizeable X-Men players teased by Feige.
Since it’s still in the scripting stages, Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot hasn’t been placed on Disney’s release calendar; however, with a trio of films set for 2028, it’s beginning to look increasingly likely that the X-Men will indeed make it into the MCU within a decade of the Fox merger.
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