Now that the writers’ strike is officially over, Marvel Studios is looking to put the wheels in motion for an upcoming X-Men movie. According to Deadline, studio executives will start taking pitch meetings with writers who are interested in penning the script, but there’s no real rush to fill the job as the film hasn’t been dated yet. It’s also likely the decision will only be made around the beginning of 2024.
While nothing is cast in stone just yet (this is the absolute start of the process, after all), the news should excite fans of the franchise. It also marks the first real piece of development news on a full-blown X-Men project since Disney’s complete acquisition of Fox — and by extent, its Marvel rights — in 2019.
The House of Mouse’s vested interest in the property is hardly a surprise, considering how lucrative it was for 20th Century Fox before the handover. The mutant hype started with 2000’s X-Men, which later grew to include six movies and a Wolverine trilogy. Two X-Men spin-offs, Dark Phoenix and New Mutants, were developed under 20th Century and distributed under Disney’s banner after the acquisition, but both fell short of previous successes.
This sore-needed makeover for the franchise comes at a time where the idea of mutants has already been seeded in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Patrick Stewart’s Professor X appeared in 2022’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, while the upcoming Deadpool 3 is set to feature Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in his debut MCU outing.
The latter movie, meanwhile, remains highly anticipated and is currently on pause due to the SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strike. It had been targeting a May 2024 release, but could possibly shift depending on how talks between Hollywood’s studios and actors pan out. Both parties will resume negotiation for a new contract on 2 October.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
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