Ever since the merger of The Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox, a Marvel Studios-produced “X-Men” movie was imminent. Despite Disney and Marvel gaining access to the mutant characters about seven years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has taken its sweet time integrating the Merry Mutants into the MCU. This is partially due to the long history the “X-Men” and related characters had while at Fox. While most of the well-known mutant characters have been kicking around on screen since the year 2000, the prequel films begun by “X-Men: First Class” allowed fans to see a new set of actors take over the roles, and movies like 2016’s “Deadpool” had basically just begun to dive into characters previously unexplored. The proof of the “old” X-Men’s popularity can be seen in the boffo box office of last year’s “Deadpool and Wolverine,” a movie which ostensibly said goodbye to the 20th Century mutant-verse, yet the announced cast for the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday” (along with some loose-lipped statements from the actors) seems to indicate that the old cinematic X-Men aren’t quite done yet.

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Thus, Marvel has been in no big hurry to reboot the “X-Men,” especially when actors like Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are still more than willing to reprise their roles. Yet “Doomsday” and its follow-up, “Avengers: Secret Wars,” may indeed be the end of the beginning of the mutants, as it were, if today’s news is any indication. Deadline reports that Jake Schreier, director of “Thunderbolts*” (“*The New Avengers” if you’re nasty), is in “early talks” to helm a new “X-Men” movie for Marvel Studios. It seems like this development was extremely recent, as the trade mentions that the meeting only took place this past week. Which makes sense, given the tepid reception to this past February’s “Captain America: Brave New World,” making Marvel jittery, before “Thunderbolts*” was released to general favor from critics and audiences alike. While there are no more details as of yet — and Schreier’s hiring for the gig isn’t entirely official — it looks likely that the professed “X-Men” fan will get to bring some new life to the mutants on screen.

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Given the rapturous response to “Thunderbolts*,” it’s no surprise that Marvel would be interested in Schreier taking on another team-based film for them. The choice also tracks given the buzz that the studio and the director had “an incredible experience” making “Thunderbolts,” and that Marvel has been recently highly interested in keeping talent around rather than continually looking elsewhere. Not only were Joe and Anthony Russo brought back for “Doomsday” and “Secret Wars,” but Matt Shakman was given the helm of this summer’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” after making “WandaVision” a success for Disney+, and Destin Daniel Cretton is tackling the upcoming “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” having proven himself on 2021’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Keeping things in-house is nothing new for Marvel per se, of course, yet this practice of retaining filmmakers but moving them to different characters (as opposed to a direct sequel) is a recent development. We’ll see how it pays off once “First Steps” hits theaters in a few months.

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In the meantime, this proposed Schreier “X-Men” movie is full of mystery. Assuming that the old “X-Men” characters are either killed off or whisked away to another multiversal plane after the events of “Doomsday/Secret Wars,” what could this new “X-Men” film be about, and which characters will be featured? Looking to the prior films and comics are not much help, especially since the X-Men are notorious for continually switching up their roster, both on-screen and on the page. Looking at “Thunderbolts*” for clues, we might speculate that Schreier might tap a few undersung or undervalued mutant characters for his movie, especially if Marvel wishes to emulate the underdog status of the “Thunderbolts” with the film. 

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Or maybe, should this new “X-Men” introduce a new Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and so on, Schreier is simply going to emphasize the underdog nature of a new batch of familiar mutants in a world which may or may not remember their multiversal counterparts. There’s another, arguably more exciting possibility, too, which is that the introduction of these new X-Men (along with the Fantastic Four) could herald a reboot of the MCU in totality, allowing audiences who may have checked out over the last few years since “Avengers: Endgame” to jump back in. Whatever happens, the possibilities are numerous. After all, as someone once said, mutation is the key to our evolution, and it may end up being the same for the MCU.