The X-Men are about to undergo their boldest film reinvention since 2011’s First Class, with a blockbuster reboot planned that will carry the team forward in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
In recent years, a number of characters from 20th Century Fox’s classic X-Men films have already cropped up in the MCU, with several more joining the party in December’s epic crossover Avengers: Doomsday.
However, fans shouldn’t get too attached to any of these returning favourites, who seem to be on their farewell tour – with a group of fresh faces gradually assembling to pick up where they leave off.
It’s not yet clear who will be inheriting the iconic roles of Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey, among others, but we do know the creatives tasked with telling their stories – and roughly when to expect to see the team in action.
If you’re as excited as we are for a new generation of Marvel mutants, read on for everything we know so far about the X-Men reboot in the MCU.
X-Men MCU reboot release date speculation
Marvel Studios has yet to announce when its X-Men reboot will be released, but we do know that it will be sometime after December 2027’s crossover spectacular Avengers: Secret Wars.
Previously, producer Kevin Feige explained (via Deadline): “The whole story of Secret Wars really leads us into a new age of mutants and of the X-Men. Again, [it’s] one of those dreams come true. We finally have the X-Men back.”
As Variety reported last summer, Marvel Studios currently has four release dates assigned for unspecified Marvel projects in 2028, February, May, November and December, one of which is likely to be X-Men.
Some have speculated that the February date could go to Ryan Coogler’s third Black Panther film, which is known to be in development and would return the series to the US and Canada’s Black History Month (where it launched in 2018).
If that proves to be true, it would leave the X-Men free to nab the early summer date or, alternatively, see it move to the end of the year. For now, we can only speculate on what is planned – but we’ll update this page when concrete details emerge.
X-Men reboot cast rumours: Who could star?
Marvel is yet to announce any cast members for its MCU-set reboot of the X-Men, but there are plenty of rumours circulating as to who could inherit the wide range of iconic roles.
Some of the speculative fan castings that have gained the most attraction include Taron Egerton as Wolverine, Harris Dickinson as Cyclops, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey and Julia Butters as Kitty Pryde – but not one of them is confirmed right now.
Addressing the online chatter, Egerton told The New York Times: “I’d be excited but I’d be apprehensive as well, because Hugh [Jackman] is so associated with the role that I’d wonder if it’d be very difficult for someone else to do it.
“Hopefully if it does come around, they’ll give me a shot.”
Three years later, Egerton discussed the continued online discourse with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining that fan demands for him to be the next Wolverine were “almost like a joke at this point”.
“Every time I have a project come out, there’s a moment where people talk about it… It’s quite strange, but it’s flattering,” he concluded.
It’s possible that Egerton may be too established to be considered, with Marvel reportedly seeking younger, lesser-known talent for the project. (Jackman himself was famously an unknown when he was first cast in the role decades ago.)
A talent agent told Variety that the direction is being taken to “keep the cost down” on a film that will inevitably require a large ensemble of actors, to populate both the faculty and student body of Xavier’s unusual school for mutants.
X-Men reboot creatives: Who is writing and directing the film?
The upcoming X-Men reboot will be directed by Jake Schreier, who previously wowed Marvel fans with his soulful team-up film Thunderbolts*.
Although it didn’t light up the box office as hoped, the Florence Pugh-led antihero film did receive a generally positive response from critics and fans, who praised the memorable characters and allegorical themes.
Prior to his Marvel blockbuster, Schreier had been best known for directing Netflix miniseries Beef, which earned numerous awards for its chaotic first season starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong.
In April 2026, Schreier announced to Collider that he was bringing his Beef collaborators with him to the MCU, with series creator Lee Sung Jin and season 1 co-writer Joanna Calo tapped to work on the script. Calo is also known for her work on The Bear.
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“We had a great experience with him on Thunderbolts*,” producer Kevin Feige said to ComicBook.com, addressing his reunion with Schreier. “He 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 [is] 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 himself told The Playlist that the MCU’s X-Men reboot would be “recognisably different from what came before,” so expect a clean break from the earlier iterations after Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Previously, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes screenwriter Michael Lesslie had been attached, although it’s not clear if he is still involved.
Which X-Men are already in the MCU?
Marvel Studios has introduced several X-Men characters to the MCU in recent years, with 2023’s box office smash-hit Deadpool & Wolverine adding two of the most popular mutants.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman reprised their respective roles from earlier entries, for a cameo-filled extravaganza that also folded Dafne Keen’s Laura (aka X-23) and Channing Tatum‘s long-delayed Gambit into MCU continuity.
Prior to that film, we’d seen Patrick Stewart reprise the role of Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) for an alternate universe scene featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Alas, that version of the character was made short work of by an out-of-control Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), meaning that he’ll be playing an entirely separate variant – perhaps the original Fox version – in the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday.
Another direct X-Men connection was established in 2023’s The Marvels, with a perplexing post-credits scene that saw Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) transported to an alternate universe.
There, she was shocked to be faced by her late mother, Maria (Lashana Lynch), and none other than Hank McCoy aka Beast (played by Kelsey Grammer, returning from Fox films X-Men: The Last Stand and Days of Future Past).
Grammer is one of the legacy X-Men actors confirmed to be returning for Avengers: Doomsday, so here’s hoping we’ll get some resolution to that confounding plot twist in the imminent blockbuster.
Joining Stewart and Grammer – in what could be a swan-song for the original X-Men cast – are Ian McKellen as Magneto, James Marsden as Cyclops, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler and Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.
In terms of brand new mutants, the MCU also has Kamala Khan aka Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani), who was revealed to have the empowering gene at the end of her six-part Disney+ series.
At the time, Vellani told Marvel.com: “I emailed Kevin Feige in all caps. I was like, ‘Are you doing this like for real? Are you sure? I’m so honoured!’ I was like yelling at him through an email. I was freaking out.
“This is the biggest deal in the world, and the fact that it’s happening in our show is crazy.”
Notably, this is a major change from the comic books, where the character was originally an Inhuman (although, the source material has since been retroactively tweaked to match up with the live-action version).
Besides individuals, Marvel has also introduced a key location from the X-Men lore to its cinematic universe, that being Wolverine’s favoured hideout Madripoor – which was depicted in 2021’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Could that be where Jackman’s clawed mutant headed after the events of Deadpool & Wolverine? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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