Marvel Studios is rebooting the X-Men franchise alongside Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier. Unfortunately, it likely won't be until next year's San Diego Comic-Con that we learn more about what Kevin Feige has planned for the MCU's mutants (next month's Hall H presentation is expected to focus solely on Avengers: Doomsday).
Going by rumours alone, we're anticipating seeing a Chris Claremont-inspired take on the team, likely with a similar lineup to the X-Men '97 animated series.
As with any team-up project, some characters will get more screentime than others and fall into the "lead" category. In the case of The Avengers, for example, Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man were featured far more prominently than, say, Hawkeye and Maria Hill.
According to insider @MyTimeToShineH, the current plan is for Jean Grey to be X-Men's lead.
Building the franchise around Marvel Girl does make sense, especially if the plan is for her to become the Phoenix. We've seen that storyline on screen before, but both X-Men: The Last Stand and Dark Phoenix failed miserably in adapting it (Simon Kinberg wrote both movies and directed the latter).
This rumour comes amid repeated claims that Sadie Sink is playing the MCU's Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. If so, it seems she'll be that movie's antagonist, potentially due to the influence of the mutant-hating Department of Damage Control.
It's an odd way to introduce the character, but at the same time, where better to set the stage for X-Men than in one of the biggest superhero movies of the summer?
Schreier is working with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The Bear co-showrunner Joanna Calo on X-Men's script, and Jin recently said, "I grew up waking up every Saturday morning and turning on the cartoon. I watched every single episode. When they came back with X-Men 97, I devoured that. The original Claremont run of the comics is near and dear to my heart."
"What I'm excited about with Jake's vision for the X-Men—and [Marvel president Kevin Feige and co-president Lou D’Esposito] are fully aligned with his vision—is that he wants to get back to focusing on the characters first."
"These are amazing characters with very rich backstories full of so much emotion. There are so many intra-team dynamics and relationships. There's soapy stuff," the writer added. "And sure, there are political themes baked into the DNA of X-Men too, and those are evergreen, but we want to get back to character-first storytelling. We've been in the lab every day. I've been going into Marvel every day."
X-Men doesn't have a release date, but is rumoured to begin shooting within the next year for a 2028 release.