“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is the first big reworking of a Foxverse property (“Deadpool & Wolverine” being a continuation of sorts) with audiences and critics alike sharing their enthusiasm, after a solid $218 million global debut, for the latest MCU release as Marvel Studios puts together the next ambitious reboot effort the “X-Men.”
When it comes to the gestating reboot from “Thunderbolts” director Jake Schreier and screenwriter Michael Lesslie (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”), a report from Variety says that the “field is wide open” when it comes to finding the next wave of actors to play this next era of MCU mutants. But adding that Marvel is supposedly targeting “younger talent, rather than A-listers, to ‘keep the cost down,'” as they cite that tidbit from an unnamed talent agent.
This trade update on the recastings for the “X-Men” would suggest there are no current casting frontrunners, so be wary of all these opportunistic casting rumors that have been making the rounds online from the geek/fan community for the last two years, featuring BIG NAMES, who going by this news, wasn’t going to be in the cards due to budgeting reasons and telegraphing that some mutant fan-castings won’t be panning out with busy or expensive actors.
Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige had recently confirmed that Schreier was aiming to make a “youthful” iteration and mentioned directly that it would impact the recasting, so, putting two together here, what Feige says tends to be direct insight into what the studio is thinking they want and hiring young talent was just assumed from his new quotes on the reboot.
For some context here, “X-Men” is simply going to have a heap of characters and needs to be looked at something on the level of an “Avengers” installment from the scale, the volume of actors, characters having wildly powers (some needing to be motion-capture and extreme VFX money like Hank McCoy, aka Beast) and big budget VFX-work needed to execute action sequences (even more if they’re indeed resurrecting The Sentinels, as the giant mutant hunting robots recently were spotted in “Avengers: Doomsday” set photos).
Keeping costs down feels like a foolish thing to do since how popular the established franchise is on a global scale since launching in 2000. One could make the argument that “X-Men” at this point in the zeitgeist is on par with the “Spider-Man” and “Avengers” franchises concerning general public awareness. So, maybe Marvel believes that the characters and spectacle will be enough, which was sort of the case with the original Fox films, as they also didn’t pursue expensive and easily marketable talent. Go big or go home, feels like it should apply here.
Lastly, without sharing new specific details or reasoning, the outlet’s report briefly mentions that neither the studio’s “Blade” reboot starring Mahershala Ali (echoed by the actor himself during the “Jurassic World Rebirth” promotion tour this summer) nor “Deadpool 4” is a huge priority right now.
While we’ve known for ages that “Blade” has been having various script issues (mentioned by Feige not too long ago they’re not rushing things to meet release obligations), the latter isn’t all that shocking either, despite the massive box office haul of $1.338 billion for the third Deadpool installment; Ryan Reynolds is actively working on some other mystery Deadpool “crossover” project instead of a fourth solo pic. So, hardly a surprise that there would be creative delays on “Deadpool 4” with Reynolds being occupied elsewhere.
With a writer and director set for “X-Men,” we likely won’t have to wait too much longer before the new group of actors is announced.
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