Marvel Studios is skipping this year's San Diego Comic-Con, but studio President Kevin Feige sat down with the trades on Friday to reveal where things stand with the MCU before Phase Six begins with The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
For starters, Feige has confirmed that, in the post-Avengers: Secret Wars MCU, the X-Men will be recast for the upcoming reboot. However, it sounds like the fresh start afforded by the events of the 2027 movie will also extend to the wider franchise.
"We’re utilizing that [story] not just to round out the stories we’ve been telling post-'Endgame,' just as importantly — and you can look at the at the 'Secret Wars' comics for where that takes you — it very, very much sets us up for the future," Feige said of the Multiverse Saga's conclusion. "'Endgame,' literally, was about endings. 'Secret Wars' is about is about beginnings."
"Reboot is a scary word," he continued. "Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline — we’re thinking along those lines. 'X-Men' is where that will happen next."
"They have been a place to tell stories about young people who feel different and who feel Other and who feel like they don’t belong," Feige added, teasing Marvel Studios' approach to putting a new spin on the mutant team. "That’s the universal story of mutants, and that is where we’re going."
Pushed on whether this will lead to recasting characters like Captain America and Iron Man, the Marvel Studios President played coy. "Amy Pascal and David Heyman are now searching for a new James Bond. David [Corenswet], the new Superman — he was awesome. That will always be the case."
"I think it’s hard for anybody to do that when an actor has done such a great role," he pointed out, referring to Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. "How are they going to ever replace Sean Connery [as James Bond], right?"
When it comes to legacy characters like Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, Feige would only say, "I think there is more fun to be had with both of those characters. But we’ll see where."
Before we reach what sounds like a soft reboot for the MCU, Avengers: Doomsday will introduce the Multiverse Saga's new big bad when Downey suits up as Doctor Doom. Original plans called for this era of storytelling to revolve around Kang the Conqueror, but even before Jonathan Majors' legal issues, Feige was plotting a pivot.
"We had started even before what had happened to the actor happened, we had started to realize that Kang wasn’t big enough, wasn’t Thanos, and that there was only one character that could be that, because he was that in the comics for decades and decades," Feige explained. "Because of the Fox acquisition, we finally had it and it was Dr. Doom."
"So we had started talking about Dr. Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang. And in fact, I had started talking with Robert [Downey Jr.] about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out," he revealed. "It was a long plan that we had had to take one of our greatest characters and utilize one of our greatest actors."
Feige didn't address how the shift from Kang will be explained, but announced that Loki season 1 writer Michael Waldron is helping Stephen McFeely write the Avengers: Doomsday script (Waldron has plenty of Multiverse experience between Rick and Morty, Loki, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness).
In a separate interview with ComicBook.com, Feige also confirmed that Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier will helm the X-Men reboot. "It’s official, Jake Schreier is doing X-Men for us, and we’re very, very lucky," he shared. "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."
"Jake’s an incredibly smart guy, and he’s an incredibly talented filmmaker. 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," Feige concluded.
Stay tuned for more MCU updates as we have them.