Following the soft release of the Thunderbolts movie, which has since been rebranded to New Avengers, and following the poor box office debut, itâs reported that director Jake Schreier is now in talks to direct the X-Men reboot at Marvel Studios, set within the MCU.
What are the details?
The news comes via Deadline, who says Schreier is in early talks for X-Men. The film will be released following Avengers: Secret Wars, as Feige previously confirmed a new age of mutants follows the film. No release date has been set.
While Deadline spins BS that Thunderbolts is a big success (itâs among the worst-performing MCU movies at the box office), itâs said that Schreier took a meeting with Marvel this past week and is Kevin Feigeâs top choice to direct X-Men.
Itâs added that Feige is producing the X-Men movie, which has writer Michael Lesslie penning the screenplay, who recently wrote The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes starring Rachel Zegler.
Deadline continues and says that Feige and Marvel are taking their time in deciding who directs X-Men, just like they took their time deciding on the writer. Itâs said that following months of internal meetings, that Marvel decided on Jake Schreier due to the positive reception to Thunderbolts.
Is Jake Schreier a good choice for X-Men?
Iâll say why the box office is bombing, Thunderbolts does have good production, special effects, acting, and Schreier did a good job directing, probably the best the MCU has seen post-Endgame, along with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine. If they can nail the story for X-Men, and donât screw it up as Feige has done with everything else as of late, the X-Men should be in good hands with Jake Schreier.
The article also says itâs seeming likely that Schreier will direct X-Men due to Schreier turning down other projects.
A bonus is that Schreier is also said to be a big fan of the X-Men comics. Post-Endgame, Feige hired creatives who donât read and who donât even like comics. Producers even told creatives not to read comics as they developed comic book movie properties. Howâd that turn out?
Comic creators react
Update: Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld chimed in on X, suggesting high-profile names passed on Feigeâs X-Men.
âIf I told you the names that passed on this directorial opportunity, your heads would spinâŠâ said Liefeld.
Legendary comic book writer Mark Millar, who wrote Old Man Logan and lots more, also replied: âFox did such a phenomenal job with those movies in terms of casting, writing and directing. Who could top Jackman, McKellan or Fassbender? I honestly think itâs a poison chalice to take this stuff on. It just canât be matched.â
Whatâs next for the X-Men in the MCU?
Whatâs next for the X-Men in the MCU is that the Fox Marvel characters are returning for Avengers: Doomsday.
The confirmed cast includes Patrick Stewart back as Xavier, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, James Marsden as Cyclops, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler who just dropped that huge spoiler, Channing Tatum is back from Deadpool & Wolverine as Gambit, and rumors also offer Famke Janssen is back as Phoenix Jean Grey.
