With Marvel's Ironheart, quietly ending the Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the studio and its head, Kevin Feige, are looking forward to their upcoming slate of releases, starting with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which releases on July 25. Speaking to Comicbook as part of a press roundtable the producer confirmed the director for the long awaited X-Men film, to be the director of Thunderbolts*, Jake Schreier.
Speaking about Schreier, Feige said,“It’s official, Jake Schreier is doing X-Men for us, and we’re very, very lucky. And so we’re beginning. It’s all starting now. The script’s underway.” He added, “ 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.”
Schreier, debuted with Robot and Frank (2012), and went on to direct Paper Towns (2015), which was an adaptation of the John Green novel of the same name. He also has several music videos under his belt, including, 'We Cry Together' by Kendrick Lamar, 'Younger and Hotter Than Me' by Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco.
An adaptation of the X-Men was announced at the San Diego Comic Con 2019, by Feige. The announcement came after the merger of 20th Century Fox with Marvel. The first appearance of mutants were confirmed in the Ms Marvel series. The appearance of Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier/Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Hugh Jackman as James 'Logan' Howlett/Wolverine in Deadpool and Wolverine solidified the existance of the Fox era X-Men in the MCU. Ian McKellen, Alan Cummings, Rebecca Romijn are also returning as Erik Lensherr/Magneto, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler, and Raven Darkholme/Mystique in Avengers: Doomsday (2026).