I think many of us were thrilled to see that Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige were able to bring back the creative team behind “Thunderbolts” (aka, “The New Avengers”) for their “X-Men” reboot, as Jake Schreier is set to direct from a script co-written by Lee Sung Jin (“Beef,” “Silicon Valley,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) and Joanna Calo (“The Bear,” “Hacks,” “Beef”) from a previous draft penned by Michael Lesslie, after the trio delievered one of the better MCU installments of recent memory. So, having them reunite to give us a new take on the world of mutants (we’ll see what happens with “Deadpool 4” or whatever team-up project is being cooked up by Ryan Reynolds) is exciting, and it sounds like they’re coming from a blank slate without having to worry about what has happened before in the Fox-era of the franchise.
Lee, while chating with Deadline, is now giving us some better insight on what Marvel is expecting from them on “X-Men,” and how the creative tells it, they won’t be “beholden” to ANY of the Singerverse films (the canon is as wacky as it gets, even without the “Deadpool” movies tinkering with its own universe, cheeky absurd place in the franchise) and could signal that fans really shouldn’t be expecting any of the old cast carrying over (despite their involvement in the “Avengers” films).
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“Truthfully, it’s [the] same parameters on this project, which is so exciting,” Lee is comparing the creative freedom of the “X-Men” to his acclaimed Netflix series “Beef.” “I’d say there were actually more parameters on ‘Thunderbolts’ because it was plugging into an existing arc and existing characters, whereas with ‘X-Men,’ Kevin [Feige] just wants to take a big swing and start anew, not be beholden to any of the movies that have come before. And Jake Schreier has such a clear vision in terms of wanting to get back to character first, and to what is exciting about those early [Chris] Claremont-run comics, which was all about team dynamics. There were a lot of soapy elements to those comics. We’ve been in the room every day together. Kevin and Louis [D’Esposito] are so dialed in, and they have such incredible instincts that it’s been fun to just blue-sky. I’m such a big fan of that IP of the comics. My dad and I, every Saturday morning, used to watch the show on television, so to be able to look around this Marvel conference room and have every ‘X-Men’ character on the board and be able to spitball and freestyle on, “What about this person?” It’s so emboldening because you’re like, “Oh, wow, this isn’t going to be a safe movie. This is actually going to be a really exciting new take.'”
When asked what, if anything, Lee feels beholden to with his “X-Men” adaptation, he responded with, “It’s, ‘Would younger me want to run to the movie theater to watch this? Are we honoring all the amazing work that the comics set up? Are we playing it safe? Are we pushing things?’ It’s just trying to look at my childhood self, who loved these characters so much, and making sure we’re doing right by him and all the other fans that love ‘X-Men.'”
While we’re waiting on concrete casting news for “X-Men,” there is an expectation filming will be taking place in the United Kingdom, like “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and the next two “Avengers” films, so if we had to guess, some of that reboot’s cast might feature a handful of local actors from the area. Stay tuned, as Marvel Studios is said to be returning to Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con next month, where it could be the perfect place for the studio to name their NEW roster of actors for their reboot.
On the animation front, there is some strong early buzz for the second season of “X-Men ’97,” and Marvel Television is so confident in the show that they’re already working on Season 3 and Season 4 episodes. That new batch of episodes debuting on July 1 will be introducing audiences to an animated version of “X-Force” (try your best to ignore that “Deadpool 2” take) that might help convince Marvel to resurrect the feature film iteration that Drew Goddard (“The Matrix 5”) had once been developing at Fox before the merger iced it.
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