Marvel's New X-men Writer Hints At A Familiar Lineup Of Classic Mutants

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The original "X-Men" movie cast (Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, etc.) is returning for "Avengers: Doomsday." After that, though, it's really time for an overdue hard reset on the mutants, one that can hopefully revitalize both the X-Men and the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. Casting rumors for Marvel Studios' new X-Men are ablaze, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

The current director of "X-Men" is Jake Schreier, who directed "Thunderbolts*", which was easily one of the better Phase 4-5 Marvel movies. It had a strong focus on character and deeper-than-surface-level team dynamics, too, which bodes well for "X-Men," which needs both. Schreier, who directed episodes of Netflix's dark dramedy "Beef," has brought along that show's creator, Lee Sung Jin, to write his X-Men movie.

Interviewed on The Watch podcast, Jin discussed his history with "X-Men." He was born in 1981, so it's not surprising his introduction was the mega-popular "X-Men" cartoon that debuted in 1992 (and which returned in 2024 as "X-Men '97"). His favorite team members were Jubilee (according to Jin, it was nice to see an Asian person like himself on a superhero team) and Gambit. From there, he discovered the "X-Men" comics and hinted at how his and Schreier's "X-Men" might be different from previous ones.

"I think the feeling of sort of the original team — I love the movies as well, but it's a feeling that I miss. When you go back and read some of the earlier stuff, there's so much inter-team, almost like soapy things."

Note he name-checked the original X-Men team: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel, with Professor X as their mentor. If those are the comics he's looking into, this could confirm rumors that the Marvel Studios X-Men will be the original five mutant heroes.

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An "X-Men" reboot with the first-ever team line-up would also align with consistent rumors that Sadie Sink will be playing Jean Grey in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day." If Marvel Studios wants to give the X-Men a fresh start, it makes sense to go back to the beginning. It also sends the message to die-hard fans that this X-Men movie will be more faithful to the comics than past ones. The 20th Century Fox films made countless changes to characters and stories — often for the worse — and never even tried to replicate the comics' aesthetics. (Director Bryan Singer even banned "X-Men" comics from the first movie's set!)

It'd certainly be nice for an "X-Men" movie to convince general audiences that the X-Men are more than just "Wolverine and his co-stars." But I'm still skeptical of starting with the original five X-Men. They may be the "classical" team, but their team dynamic is boring. Stan Lee was chasing the success of "Fantastic Four" when he co-created the X-Men, and the OG mutants were just a lesser FF. The proof is in the pudding; the original X-Men comics failed, and the book was semi-canceled from 1970 to 1975. (New issues were just reprints of older stories.)

The X-Men only took off in popularity after the 1975 relaunch "Giant-Size X-Men" #1, which introduced a new team of now familiar faces: Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, etc. In this humble fan's opinion, it'd be better to start with that team or the '90s cartoon team. Those teams have crackling dynamics and are ones that led the X-Men to massive success.

That said, one rumor (from the Cosmic Circus) states the MCU "X-Men" reboot will feature the original five, as well as three other heroes.

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According to Daniel Richtman, Gambit could be one of these three. It would track with Lee Sung Jin's childhood love for him and the recent popularity spike Gambit has gotten from "X-Men '97" and Channing Tatum's appearance as him in "Deadpool & Wolverine."

Both Margaret Qualley and Odessa A'zion have been rumored for the part of Rogue (though Qualley denied interest in joining a big franchise), while Julia Butters was rumored to be in consideration for Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. Given Jin's affection for Jubilee in the 1990s "X-Men" cartoon, though, I wouldn't be surprised if the movie does what that show did and swaps out Kitty for Jubilee.

We can only wait and see which characters the movie will star, but hopefully, those rumors mean Jin and Jake Schreier are adding onto the OG five to spice up the cast. Jin also told The Watch that, in general, he and Schreier want to make an "X-Men" which puts character first. Past X-movies have absolutely struggled with giving everyone on the team equal spotlight. As Jin said:

"I think the movies, in a great way, leaned into more of the political backdrop, which is just always baked into 'X-Men.' But I think what's exciting about Jake [Schreier]'s vision for this movie is he wants to get back to 'character first.' He wants to really lean into inter-character dynamics and relationships and play around with the soapy stuff that was baked into the comics."

That comment suggesting this "X-Men" movie could be less political than previous ones is potentially worrying, but a movie that finally embraces "X-Men" as a colorful superhero soap opera is overdue, too.