The director of Phase 7's biggest movie just confirmed that the film is now being worked on, meaning that Phase 7 has officially been kicked off, seeing as how it's the first film of the phase to go into that stage of development. All eyes are currently on Avengers: Doomsday, Avengers: Secret Wars, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which are all films within Phase 6 of the MCU. However, the company is already looking ahead to the future, especially when it comes to a film as big as one that will headline Phase 7.
Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier recently revealed that the MCU's X-Men movie, which Schreier is also directing, is being worked on by himself and Marvel Studios. X-Men is the first movie of Phase 7 that Marvel Studios has "started work on."
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Schreier simply confirmed that work had begun on X-Men without revealing any details. The director's comments likely indicate that the film is in pre-production and that the script is being worked on. Even though Schreier was not credited as a writer on Thunderbolts* and Michael Lesslie is the one who will be penning X-Men, Schreier will still be actively involved in the writing and pre-production process:
"I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on 'X-Men,' and that’s obviously very, very exciting."
Schreier then teased that X-Men will have a balance between action scenes and emotional moments, just like Thunderbolts*. Specifically, he noted that he learned a lot from working on Thunderbolts*, saying that "there are so many things that [he] didn't know about before" directing Thunderbolts*:
"There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started '[Thunderbolts*].' The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it’s more shooting days than I’ve ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, 'Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.'"
X-Men does not have a release date yet, but many expect it to be released sometime in 2028, or possibly even in 2029. No actors have been announced to appear in the project yet, but since the movie's development is ramping up, it is likely that casting will begin sometime relatively soon, potentially within the next year.
What Will Join X-Men in Phase 7?
X-Men will undoubtedly be the biggest movie of the MCU's Phase 7, and the one fans are most eager to see. After the Multiverse Saga ends with Avengers: Secret Wars, the franchise will enter the Mutant Saga.
Since the Mutant Saga will be explored beginning with Phase 7, other projects featuring Mutants will likely be released in that phase. However, some non-Mutant projects are also expected to hit theaters sometime in 2028 or beyond.
For example, Black Panther 3 will be a part of Phase 7, and was called one of the two most important Phase 7 films in Marvel Studios' eyes. Alongside it could be Doctor Strange 3, Shang-Chi 2, or even a Fantastic Four: First Steps sequel.
LATEST NEWS
