It’s been almost a half decade since Disney purchased Fox’s entertainment assets and reclaimed the cinematic rights to the X-Men. Since then, there have only been a few sporadic hints at Marvel’s mutant heroes in the MCU aside from the upcoming Deadpool and Wolverine. Now, the X-Men MCU reboot movie finally has a screenwriter circling the project.
Via Deadline, Michael Lesslie is in talks to write the new X-Men film after Marvel took pitches from a number of screenwriters. Lesslie’s previous credits include The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes, the Assassins Creed movie, and The Little Drummer Girl TV miniseries.
While this is the first step forward for the next X-Men movie, it may still be a few years away at the earliest. But with a screenwriter in place, Marvel’s next step is to line up a director to develop the film alongside Lesslie. The original X-Men movie debuted in theaters in 2000 and helped paved the way for the MCU before the film franchise ran out of steam in 2019 with the box office disappointment of Dark Phoenix.
Regardless, the recently concluded first season of X-Men ’97 served as a reminder that Marvel’s mutant heroes still have a passionate fan following. According to Deadline, the season finale of X-Men ’97 had 3.5 million viewers across its first five days, and overall viewership for the series has grown since it premiered in March. Additionally, the original X-Men: The Animated Series has seen a surge in viewers on Disney+ as well.
