Despite the X-Men not arriving in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) until at least 2028, after the events of Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) have taken place, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has already disclosed more details on his plans to recast the X-Men and other key characters in the MCU, expressing that the reborn X-Men team will go in a “very youth-oriented” direction this time.
“Jake’s going to make a youth-focused reboot. That may be reflected in mutant castings, and it’ll definitely be felt in the tone and perspective of the film,” Feige said.
Feige seems keen to get an early start on the project, with development already underway. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) screenwriter Michael Lesslie has been confirmed to be penning the screenplay, and Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier has also recently been tapped to spearhead the project.
On his choice to pick Schreier to helm the project, Feige expressed how he was impressed with what Schreier did to appeal to the sensibilities of younger demographics. He said, “We had a great experience with [Schreier] on Thunderbolts, and if you saw that movie, what he did with those character interactions — he also has his pulse on, shall we say, a younger demographic. Not—he’s younger than me, for sure—but he’s tapped into that in a way that I think is important.”
In that same interview with Nerdist, Feige emphasises how vital it was for their choice of director to have this connection with a younger audience, stating, “It was important for Thunderbolts, much more important for X-Men, because X-Men, as it was in the comics, will be a very youth-oriented, focused and cast movie.”
In a chat with The Playlist, when asked if the new reboot would be recognisably different from previous iterations, Schreier reinforced that the MCU’s reboot of the X-Men would likely be distinct from the ones previously shown onscreen in 20th Century Fox’s X-Men films, despite Fox’s own younger reboot via the First Class line of prequels.
The X-Men film franchise has been chock-full of big names such as Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: Picard) who played Charles Xavier / Professor X, Ian McKellen (The Hobbit trilogy) who played Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, James Marsden (Sonic the Hedgehog film series) who played Scott Summers / Cyclops, Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) who played Hank McCoy / Beast, Rebecca Romijn (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) who played Mystique, and Alan Cumming (The Traitors) who played Nightcrawler, who are all set to reprise their roles in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday (2027).
The franchise has also boasted renowned actors the likes of Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman) who recently reprised his role as Logan / Wolverine in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Halle Berry (The Union) who played Ororo Munroe / Storm, Famke Janssen (How to Get Away with Murder) who played Jean Grey / Phoenix, Elliot Page (Umbrella Academy) who played Kitty Pryde, Shawn Ashmore (The Rookie) who played Bobby Drake / Iceman and Vinnie Jones (MacGyver) who played Cain Markok / Juggernaut in its original line of films.
This is on top of the rebooted First Class line of prequels that also featured an impressive lineup of high-profile actors like James McAvoy (Split) as Charles Xavier / Professor X, Michael Fassbender (The Killer) as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games trilogy) as Raven / Mystique, Nicholas Hoult (Superman) as Hank McCoy / Beast, Evan Peters (Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story) as Peter Maximoff / Quicksilver, Lucas Till (MacGyver) as Alex Summers / Havok, Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One) as Scott Summers / Cyclops, Ben Hardy (Bohemian Rhapsody) as Angel, Alexandra Shipp (Tick, Tick… Boom!) as Ororo Munroe / Storm, Lana Condor (To All the Boys film series) as Jubilee, and Olivia Munn (The Predator) as Psylocke.
While there’s no news of casting yet, any of the new and younger actors set to take over the reins of the X-Men in the MCU will certainly have massive shoes to fill. But until then, fans can only continue to speculate and discuss their favourite fancastings.
Given how fan castings and cries for John Krasinski to play Reed Richards ultimately led to his brief appearance as Mister Fantastic in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, who knows? Maybe Marvel Studios may heed fans after all.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
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