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X-Men Isn't Out Yet But Marvel Is Already Planning For The Future

The new version of the X-Men hasn't even officially made its debut yet, but, unsurprisingly, Marvel is already thinking about what happens after.

This is probably the least surprising news to come out in a while, but Marvel Studios is putting the cart before the horse. One can argue they've been doing that since a couple of movies into phase one, and it usually works out okay for them, but they are in the process of gearing up for another big commitment as the X-Men finally join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The mutants have been alluded to and named in a couple of different places as a group that exists, and we know the cast from the first round of movies is returning for Avengers: Doomsday, but what about the X-Men after Doomsday and Secret Wars?

The new X-Men movie has a director and recently gained two new writers, and while Thunderbolts* director Jake Shrieier couldn't say much when he spoke to Collider, he did say that Marvel is looking to the future, but they want to make it so they walk down a "kind of less-trodden path" with these very well-known characters.

"Yeah, I think that obviously, first things first, we have to make one great movie, but we always have an eye as we're talking about it, to what are the different places this can go? What are the places that it's been in the comics, what hasn't been explored as much, and how can that be incorporated?" Shreier explained, "And what are some of the different avenues that we could take that feel like the kind of less-trodden path that we could go down? But those ideas are always out there, as we have the discussions."

Schreier is right that first they need to make a good movie, but we all know that as soon as the ball really gets rolling, Marvel isn't going to hold back. One can argue they've been holding back since the Fox acquisition went through in 2019, and many thought they would fast-track Fantastic Four and X-Men movies once they secured the rights, but that wasn't the direction they ultimately took. Once we get those mutants out there, though, then things are going to get crazy.

What Do X-Men Look Like In A Post-Doomsday And Secret Wars MCU?

The mutants have been lurking on the edges of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a while now, but it wasn't until September 2023 that we got official confirmation that an X-Men movie was in the works. It took another two years before a director was officially announced. In May 2025, Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier was officially announced and confirmed to direct the film. Schreier explained, "I can't say anything about it, but we've started work on X-Men, and that's obviously very, very exciting. 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.'"

In the middle of July 2025, Kevin Feige spoke briefly about the X-Men, specifically about how they will be recast post-Avengers: Secret. Feige explained, "Reboot is a scary word. Reboot can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Reset, singular timeline — we're thinking along those lines. … 'X-Men' is where that will happen next." So the version of the X-Men that Schreier is (likely) working on is for a cast and maybe even a timeline of the MCU we haven't seen yet. You can't really talk about the film without giving away at least something about what a post-Secret Wars MCU will look like, so expect next to nothing about this or any film coming out after Secret Wars for a while. 

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