Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot has finally received a story confirmation that fans have been eager to hear. Set for a 2028 release, the film marks the first X-Men project to be fully developed under Marvel Studios and its President, Kevin Feige. This will introduce an entirely new team, the third new X-Men cast of the 21st century, separate from the returning roster set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, and a recent update on director Jake Schreier's vision has helped quiet fan concerns about the project's direction.
In a new Men's Health profile, Beef creator Lee Sung Jin opened up about the creative direction behind the upcoming X-Men film, and his words should be music to the ears of longtime fans. Sung Jin is co-writing the screenplay alongside The Bear showrunner Joanna Calo.
He and Schreier are longtime collaborators, having worked closely together on both seasons of Beef, and their partnership continued with 2025's Thunderbolts*, which was warmly received by both critics and audiences and ultimately secured Schreier the director's chair for the X-Men reboot.
Sung Jin made clear that the team is zeroing in on "character-first storytelling," pushing back against the spectacle-heavy approach that has come to define so many recent superhero films.
He raved about the depth of the X-Men characters, highlighting "very rich backstories" that can touch on a variety of real-life topics and issues:
"What I'm excited about with Jake's vision for the X-Men and [Marvel president Kevin Feige and co-president Lou D'Esposito] are fully aligned with his vision, is that he wants to get back to focusing on the characters first.
These are amazing characters with very rich backstories full of so much emotion. There are so many intra-team dynamics and relationships. There's soapy stuff. And sure, there are political themes baked into the DNA of X-Men too, and those are evergreen, but we want to get back to character-first storytelling."
That commitment to the craft is clearly reflected in how the team is approaching the writing process day-to-day.
Sung Jin describes an intensive, all-hands collaboration, with Marvel's top brass "in the trenches" alongside the writers every step of the way.
"We've been in the lab every day. I've been going into Marvel every day. We're doing long writing sessions. Kevin and Lou are in there with us. It's me, [co-writer Joanna Calo, who is the showrunner of The Bear], Jake, Kevin, and Lou. We're in the trenches together and it's invigorating. We all love these characters. I'm excited, and I think true fans will be excited too."
Though he admits he wasn't initially planning to take on another Marvel project, he describes the opportunity as one he simply couldn't pass up, "I grew up waking up every Saturday morning and turning on the cartoon:"
"I wasn't planning on doing another Marvel thing because I do have a lot I want to explore in my personal projects. But Jake is one of my best friends, and when he comes calling with X-Men…come on, you drop everything for that. I grew up waking up every Saturday morning and turning on the cartoon. I watched every single episode. When they came back with X-Men '97, I devoured that. The original Claremont run of the comics is near and dear to my heart."
Hearing this seemingly candid breakdown of the behemoth in the scene's writing room for X-Men is cause for celebration. For all of Marvel Studios, it seems like a lot is riding on the new X-Men movie, following the culmination of the Multiverse Saga with 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars.
At the moment, it seems Black Panther 3 and X-Men are the two future MCU movies that are farthest along in pre-production, making their expected release dates May 5, 2028, and July 28, 2028.
Luckily, it seems like they're getting back to basics with this next era of live-action X-Men, but there's still very little known about the project, or even how a new generation of X-Men will suddenly be in the MCU (Earth-616).
What We Know About X-Men 2028
With Sung Jin, Calo, Schreier, Feige, and D'Esposito all locked in, the creative team behind the reboot is fully assembled and clearly deep into production.
On the casting front, many insiders believe Sadie Sink's mystery character in Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be her X-Men introduction, a theory that gains further traction given her confirmed appearance in Avengers: Secret Wars as well.
That film is expected to be a pivotal setup for everything that follows. Marvel Studios has confirmed that Secret Wars will effectively reset the MCU into a singular timeline, though Feige has been careful to avoid the word "reboot."
The new continuity will likely place mutants at the center of the MCU going forward, permanently integrating the Fantastic Four into Earth-616 while phasing out the sprawling multiverse structure of the past five years.
The reset may also open the door to entirely new characters, including a new Black Panther. For the X-Men, the original cast might say goodbye in Doomsday, and a new one will say hello in Secret Wars.
