When the X-Men finally get their own movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they’ll be directed by none other than Jake Schreier. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige shared the this tidbit at a press roundtable attended by ComicBook on Sunday while promoting The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Schreier made his MCU debut just this year with Thunderbolts*, so he’s definitely familiar with the found-family team-up genre. The X-Men became available to the MCU when Disney and 20th Century Fox merged in 2019, and Feige has been fielding questions about the characters since before then. Schreier was rumored to be the frontrunner to direct, but this is the first time Feige has confirmed the news himself.
“It’s official, Jake Schreier is doing X-Men for us, and we’re very, very lucky,” Feige said. “And we’re very, very lucky to have him and very excited to have him. And so we’re beginning. It’s all starting now. The script’s underway.” The producer confirmed that the positive response to Thunderbolts* played a role in Schreier getting this gig, but his faith in the director extends beyond that.'
“Jake’s an incredibly smart guy, and he’s an incredibly talented filmmaker,” he said. “We had a great experience with him 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. He’s younger than me for sure, but he’s tapped into that in a way that I think 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.”
One detail Feige was not prepared to elaborate on was the plot of Schreier’s movie. He acknowledged that a lot of the biggest X-Men stories have already been adapted for the big screen, saying, “More than any of them, right? There have been more X-Men movies than there were Spidey movies or Fantastic Four movies.” However, it sounds like he is not opposed to retreading those storylines in the MCU with a new cast and a different creative direction.
“So a lot has been done. But again, because it’s X-Men, because it’s almost a comic legacy unto itself, there’s so much more to tap into it,” he said. “And there [are] so many sagas within sagas for X-Men that that’s part of what we’re talking about now — which saga to grow and build to while doing the most important thing, which is introducing all of these characters and giving them their due in our first film.”
Feige confirmed that the MCU would reboot the X-Men at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, but work on that project has been slow and methodical. The characters likely won’t be introduced until after the Multiverse Saga is over, and there’s no telling what the MCU will look like after that. Screenwriter Michael Lesslie was hired to write the script back in May of 2024, but according to Feige, that work is still underway.
There’s no word yet on when the MCU’s X-Men movie might premiere, but with a lauded writer and director now onboard, it’s feeling more real than ever. In the meantime, The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on Friday, July 25th.
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