20th Century Fox is fast-tracking the project for a June 2005 start date--to film. While Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wrote two screenplays addressing the Dark Phoenix storyline, the studio will most likely run with Zak Penn's version.
Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Rebecca Romijn, Famke Janssen, Shawn Ashmore, Ian McKellen and Alan Cumming are all locks on coming back. It is unknown whether Halle Berry will reprise her role of Storm and whether the role of Cyclops will be recast or written out. James Marsden, who played Cyclops in the first two X-Men films, instead chose to jump ship and star in Bryan Singer's Superman film.