There is a generation out there whose first introduction to the superhero franchise was 20th Century‘s X-Men movies. The genre in the early 2000s looked and felt very different from today’s MCU and DC Universe. Those were the times of practical effects like the ones used in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies, blood and gore weren’t off-limits as seen in Wesley Snipes’ Blade trilogy, and the dark, gritty, hyper-realistic tone of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins definitely redefined the genre.
So, when the audience thinks about a fresh batch of X-Men joining the MCU roster, the bar is in heaven. With actors like Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Ian McKellen, and more being synonymous with their characters, upcoming X-Men director Jake Schreier has a Herculean task at hand. And as per writer Lee Sung Jin, the team at Marvel is taking the task very seriously. Schreier previously helmed Marvel’s Thunderbolts*, which brought a respite to millions of fans worldwide who were losing faith in the franchise. The feature brought several anti-heroes together to form a rag-tag team, now known as the in-universe New Avengers. So letting him helm another film with an ensemble seems like the right approach.
Jin recently revealed in a new interview that, with the upcoming X-Men, Kevin Feige “just wants to take a big swing and start anew, not be beholden to any of the movies that have come before. And Jake Schreier has such a clear vision in terms of wanting to get back to character first.” With the character-first approach, Jin further teased that the team is working to bring in the elements that made early Chris Claremont-run comics so “exciting“. “There were a lot of soapy elements to those comics. We’ve been in the room every day together. Kevin and Louis [D’Esposito] are so dialed in, and they have such incredible instincts that it’s been fun to just blue-sky.”
‘X-Men’ Reboot Will Have a Huge Roster
With the advancement of CGI and filming technology, no character seems off-limits when it comes to their big screen representation, and certainly, X-Men comics have many interesting heroes and villains. Lin spoke about his love for X-Men, “I’m such a big fan of that IP of the comics. My dad and I, every Saturday morning, used to watch the show on television.” Further adding how it enriches his work now:
“So to be able to look around this Marvel conference room and have every X-Men character on the board and be able to spitball and freestyle on, ‘What about this person?’ It’s so emboldening, because you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this isn’t going to be a safe movie. This is actually going to be a really exciting new take.'”
While a release date hasn’t been announced, Marvel’s X-Men will drop sometime after Avengers: Secret Wars.
via Collider