Friday’s Disney Entertainment Showcase featured no shortage of exciting announcements regarding the Mouse’s imminent film slate, but what will perhaps go down as the most consequential moment of the night came when Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige did his best Charles Xavier impression and called to him, his X-Men.
Flanked by director Jake Schreier and Jean Grey herself, Sadie Sink, Feige introduced the initial cast members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming X-Men relaunch. Christopher Abbott, Maya Boyd, Inde Navarette, and Adam Driver joined the cast alongside the previously reported Samara Weaving, Kit Connor, and Sink.
It’s a frankly stacked lineup that instills tremendous confidence in the MCU’s forthcoming Mutant Saga. It’s a stellar mix of established names and burgeoning stars, and per Feige, Marvel isn’t done adding to the cast.
With our initial X-Men now confirmed, it’s natural to speculate about the direction Marvel plans to take the team and which comics are providing primary inspiration. Schreier spoke about these very topics during a Friday interview with Good Morning America.
‘X-Men’ Director Talks About His Approach
The X-Men world is a simultaneously daunting and intriguing one for a filmmaker. Though it’s been explored in 14 different movies over the past three decades, there’s over half a century of source material—quite literally thousands of stories that have yet to be adapted to film.
It’s these stories that Schreier is prioritizing as he conceptualizes his X-Men relaunch. He touched on the world’s narrative richness and untapped potential while speaking to GMA.
Photo Credit: Michael Tackett
“I think one of the great things about the comics is [that] there is such a rich and broad history,” Schreier said. “That was one of the first things that Kevin [Feige] and I talked about when I came in, was they’ve made great movies in this world, and they’ve made so many great things.
“Let’s find the things that haven’t recently been done well.”
Photo Credit: Jesse Grant/Getty Images
Schreier went on to mention two particular comic eras that he’s delved into.
“All of these other corners of the universe, and digging back into those comics like 20 years, the whole Chris Claremont run, the newer Jonathan Hickman stuff, there are so many stories that are still untold to honor and to reach into and to meet this cast and try to do something new,” the filmmaker said.
Photo Credit: BBC/Getty Images
“I think you always want to see something that reveres where it came from and then is still taking a new spin of where we want to go.”
Claremont & Hickman’s Runs
Claremont’s time on Uncanny X-Men is broadly viewed as the comic’s definitive run. It was under the writer’s stewardship that the team ascended to its contemporary status as industry titans.
He worked on the comic from 1975 to 1991, penning many of the team’s most iconic stories and creating some of its most enduring characters.
Photo: Marvel
Any X-Men adaptation is inherently going to have some Claremont influence, as he’s intrinsically linked with the property. Schreier’s mention of Hickman is a bit more intriguing, as his lauded run just concluded in 2024.
Hickman’s ambitious run, dubbed the “Krakoan Age,” saw mutants create a sovereign nation on the living island of Krakoa. It was an expansive, interconnected story told across more than 80 different series. Fans today revere it for just how distinct it was.
House of X (2019) #1 (Photo: Marvel)
Adapting some of the Krakoan Age stories would certainly set these new X-Men films apart from their predecessors. The Krakoan Age didn’t exist when the initial films were produced.
The logo revealed on Friday also appears to take some aesthetic influence from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men. That famed run could be an influence, as well.
Regardless, the imminent relaunch makes it an exciting time to be an X-Men fan. The as-yet-untitled relaunch will hit theaters on May 5, 2028.
Make sure to keep an eye on MickeyBlog for continued coverage of the latest news out of D23.
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