Marvel Studios has been taking pitch meetings with writers for the X-Men reboot since late last year, and recent reports indicate that we are very close to finding out who will pen the script for the project.
Once a scribe is in place, the studio will turn its attention to a director - but there's a good chance Kevin Feige and co. already have a list of filmmakers in mind that they feel could be the right person to bring the iconic mutant heroes back to the big screen.
In the latest edition of his newsletter, Jeff Sneider mentions Moonlight and Mufasa: The Lion King director Barry Jenkins as one filmmaker who could be on Marvel's radar to helm the movie. Sneider doesn't say Jenkins is actually in talks, but he seems to feel that if the upcoming Lion King prequel is a success, he might be a strong contender.
There's nothing to say that Jenkins would be interested, of course, but taking the helm of Mufasa proves that he doesn't have an aversion to working on major studio blockbusters, and he sent the following response to a fan after sharing his reaction to seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in theaters back in 2018.
Again, this shouldn't be taken as confirmation or even a rumor that Jenkins is in negotiations to direct X-Men, but it will be interesting to see if the filmmaker's name does wind up on a potential shortlist down the line.
Feige assured fans that a reboot was in the works shortly after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox's assets back in 2019, but we haven't had a single official update until recently. There were rumors that contractual issues may have been preventing Marvel Studios from introducing new actors as established mutant characters such as Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, etc, to The MCU.
It's said that if Marvel wanted to reboot the team using any of the same characters from Fox's franchise before 2025, the likes of Simon Kinberg, Bryan Singer and co. would be, at minimum, entitled to credits and compensation, and may even have some degree of creative control as well.
We have no idea if this is accurate, but it would explain why it's pretty much been radio silence on all things X-Men since 2019, and why the only established mutant character we've seen in The MCU since is Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Beast (Kelsey Grammer) in The Marvels. Hugh Jackman is also set to return as Logan in Deadpool and Wolverine later this year.
This wouldn't prohibit Marvel from debuting new mutant heroes and villains with no connection to the earlier films, however, which we saw when Kamala Khan was ret-conned as a mutant in the season finale of Ms. Marvel. A recent rumor also claimed that Israeli hero Sabra will be introduced as a mutant in Captain America: Brave New World.
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