ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Marvel's Big X-Men Announcement, Explained

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

A report from Variety confirmed that Jacob Schrier is the director of the first MCU X-Men movie, and the studio added a mysterious new slot to their calendar! Does this mean that the Mutant Saga is almost here? ScreenCrush breaks down the biggest news in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the potential cast, and what villains we need to see the team face. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the Grandview's shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series.

Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Owen, when are we getting the X-Men? I cannot tell you that. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and the X-Men are finally coming to the MCU. And I'm not talking about cameos from the old X-Men,

like Deadpool, Wolverine, and Professor X. Marvel just confirmed a mysterious new movie slated for December 2028. And Variety just confirmed that Jake Schreier is going to be the director of the film. So we're going to explain what this means, everything we know so far, and then Mike Lawrence, Coltonogburn, and Tommy Beck told and I are going to talk about exactly what the story of this new X-Men movie could be. And as I'll tell you guys later, I think that the biggest mistake that Kevin Feige made in the Multiverse saga was because he had no idea what he was going to do with the X-Men.

And we're also going to talk about Marvel's plans for Wolverine and why I think that they're making a huge mistake. First, I want to remind you guys, screencrush this on all your favorite podcast platforms, and at our merch store, we're also having a giant 20% off summer sale. You can find links for our products below, and if you sign up and become a member, you get free stuff. So starting off, let's just remember how we got here. The X-Men movie in 2000 was the first major Marvel Super Team to finally have a blockbuster release. What about Blade? Yes, Blade came first, but Blade was never a huge, marquee Marvel hero.

The X-Men were like the top-selling book in comics, and they were able to sell their that concept to general movie audiences. The MCU would not exist without that X-Men movie, and also that X-Men movie would not exist without X-Men the animated series. That film was created before Marvel Studios even existed. Back then, Marvel passed their characters to other movie studios, which meant that Fox could retain those rights as long as they kept making X-Men movies. And this is why the X-Men franchise was so uneven. Like X-2 is maybe the greatest superhero movie ever made, but then they rushed to end the franchise before it got too expensive so they could spin the heroes off into cheaper solo films.

Then that tanked after X-Men Origins Wolverine, so they rebooted the franchise with a younger cast. But then, that forced the production schedule to always have an X-Men movie in development, and that led to diminishing returns. And those last two X-Men films, the really bad ones, were released at the peak of the MCU, making most of us wish that Marvel would just get the damn rights back

from 20th century Fox, which they finally did when Disney bought the studio. And when Disney bought Fox, it was seen as a win for Marvel, fans who just wanted to see the Fantastic Four and the X-Men join the other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But I think this is where Kevin Feigy screwed up. Instead of just introducing the new X-Men into his shared cinematic universe, they wanted to pay tribute to what had come before. Remember, Kevin Feige got his start on the first X-Men film as an associate producer. He learned to love Marvel Comics because he worked on that film and did the research. And I think he felt a debt

to that franchise and he wanted to give them a proper send-off. And this, I think, is where the inspiration for the Multiverse saga came from. They couldn't say that all of those X-Men films had always existed in the Marvel Universe, so they said that they were in a different universe. And giving the old X-Men universe this kind of send-off was a way to say that, hey, those stories mattered like any movie set in the main Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But I think this was a huge mistake. Post-Avendor's Endgame, there was a great opportunity to just organically introduce mutants into the 616 universe. Like maybe global mutation could have been triggered by Thanos' snap. Like, I'm sure there had always been, mutants on Earth, like Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse, but Thanos' snap would have caused a huge evolutionary leap forward and mutants would have popped up all around the globe. And if they wanted to

keep Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool, no problem. The guy's a trickster character that could have hopped to a different universe. And remember, at this point, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine was already retired from the movie Logan, so it would have been the perfect time to reboot the franchise, but in a shared cinematic universe. But instead, we got the Multiverse saga. Now, I am looking forward to seeing the X-Men fight the Avengers and the Fantastic Four in Avengers Doomsday. That list of chairs included some surprising names like Alan Cumming returning as Nightcrawler. And I'm sure these next Avengers films are going to be a great swan song for this cast. But let's face it, what we really wanted to see was a new group of X-Men who didn't have

any of the baggage from that old universe interacting with Spider-Man and the Avengers. We want to see how Tony Stark would cope with the mutant problem. We want to see how Thunderbolt Ross would react to seeing mutants popping up in his country. And now, guys, that is finally happening. Variety has reported that Jake Schreier, who directed the Thunderbolts, will be the director of the X-Men. Now, Schreer showed us in the Thunderbolts, that he could handle a large ensemble cast.

And I think that movie, personally, I don't care how it did at the box office, that was the best Marvel movie since Guardians 3. The movie had humor, it had emotional weight and pathos, and all of that is perfect for the X-Men. Now, there's also rumors that Sadie Sink is being considered for Gene Gray, and that Julia Butters could be Kitty Pride. Hell, I heard the other day that Sabrina Carpenter could be playing The Dazzler.

Not to mention, there are already other mutants in the MCU, like Kamala Khan, Namor, and Mr. Immortal. And also, Daniel R.P.K. has claimed that Gambit will also be on this new X-Men team, which is interesting because Channing Tatum finally got to play the role in Deadpool and Wolverine. And he is going to reprise that role in Avengers Doomsday. So it seems like they'll want to go young with this new cast, you know, to actually show them as students attending the school. But maybe there are older teachers and rogues like Wolverine and Gambit who could also be there.

Oh, who's going to be Wolverine? Well, Kevin Feige has also said that they want Hugh Jackman to stay on his Wolverine for a long time. But that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be the Wolverine of the X-Men movies. Maybe he'll play a version of Old Man Logan and the dystopian future from the comics. But I'm joined by the smartest comic book people I know. We have comedian Mike Lawrence, Colton Ogburn, who's trapped in our TV and he doesn't know it, so please don't tell him. And Tommy Beck told the guy who is always on break.

So my big question out the gate, guys, is we've already seen most of the classic X-Men stories adapted. some adapted twice in the case of Dark Phoenix. So, Mike, my question for you is, like, what do you actually want to see them adapt in X-Men the new class, as I've decided to call it? I mean, I want to see the opposite of what this panel looks like visually, and that's some variety. That would be nice.

I think we all have decent beards, though. I mean, especially Tommy, beard is looking fantastic. We look like an evolutionary chart, but no one's evolving. No, I want to see them, like, do superhero stuff. Like, the muted metaphor, you know, civil rights, like, that was a part of X-Men, but that wasn't all of X-Men. You know, they go to space. They do cool stuff. They save lives.

Like, everything in the X-Men movies has felt like an internal problem that they've had to solve, like, for the most part, of, like, mutant on mutin. But I want to see, you know, the Shiar. I want to see, do I want to see The Savage Land? No one wants to see the Savage Land. I'm right there with you. Yeah, I do. I want to see Mojo and the Mojoverse.

Oh, God, Mojo would be amazing in live action. It would be so cool. You know, like, I just want, like, a lot of the X-Men, I mean, to me, the Claremont Burn run will always be the seminal run that everybody tries to capture. And they went all over the universe, and it was fun. You know, the watchers in those comics. Like, there is, like, a larger Marvel universe that I just want to see them, like, not just be mopey and angsty.

I want to see them just have fun. And not to mention, those comics not only went to space, but they also brought magic into it. You know, you had villains like Belasco and Ileana's connection to limbo and the devil and, you know, Kitty Pride and Kisone's servant that showed up in that one issue where she was home alone for the holidays. Do a horror movie with The Brood. Dude, the Demon Bear saga of it right this time. What about you, Tommy? What are you hoping to see?

I echo Mike's sentiments. I want them to leave the planet. I think, like, you know, it's implied that these heroes have the weight of the world on their shoulders. They're literally fighting to save the world in most of these movies. But we are missing, like, the team-up nature of the X-Men to go, like, solve the a problem that's someone else's problem not the impending doom that is coming to take them over via apocalypse or phoenix or whatever so i and i think to me this is such a trivial small thing but i want a dynamite adaptation of jubilee i want jubilee introduced and i want it like i want

that character to be a like centerpiece of the new x-men movies whoever gets cast in that role colton what about you i i love the idea of them going more like for lack of a better term like comic bookie with the new X-Men movies. I want them to have, like, that more extravagant feel like we're seeing with Superman and Fantastic Four. I'm all for that. But I do want them to maybe start a little small and get back into those stories that are kind of, like, you know, about social justice and seeing how mutants, you know, live in

this new MCU. I think that if they did something kind of like a welcome to Genosha or something, like they kind of did with X-Men 97, I think that that would be a good. way in to, yes, have like this extravagant island with all these different mutants, but also stick with that same theme. And then I really do think that they could mirror what they did with like phase one of the infinity saga and just the entire infinity saga by starting small, maybe bring back Magneto, have him kind of serve in that Loki role, then have him kind of become the reluctant hero. And then I think you go into Age of Apocalypse, you have him be your

Thanos. If they really do want to kind of like do a pretty much copy themselves and do the Mutant Saga like the Infinity Saga, I think that would be a good path to go. I don't know. My thing is I'm tired of Magneto, you know, like I don't want to see more Magneto than we already have. I think him being in every X-Men movie was a bit extraneous. Sorry, Mike, I cut you off. No, I was going to say, like, can he be on the asteroid? Can he have the acolytes? Yeah. Because my thing, it's, you know, when people are like, I don't want to see Batman's parents die again. Like, I am Jewish. I don't need to see the Holocaust flashbacks again with Magneto. You know, like, that is a part of his character. There's so many other parts of his character

also that are interesting and compelling. I kind of hope that they don't feel the need to do the origin for either Professor X or Magneto, because I kind of hope when they reset the universe, like in canon at the end of Secret Wars, I'd like to see Fastbender and McAvoy just come back and play the roles, as if they were kind of always there. I think that'd be a good, like, strand of continuity. I don't know what else they have to do in those rules, but, I mean, I do like them in that. I think they're going to want a total clean break, though.

I think they're probably going to get an older Charles. Maybe not as old as, like, Brian Cranston, who keeps getting thrown around as a name because he was bald in that show that one time. But I, with you guys, I want to see something fantastical, but I also agree with Colton that, like, starting small and focusing on it being a school, maybe with a character like Jubilee, like Tommy said,

is a really good way to go. But maybe they can start small in that circumstance, but then go to Mojo World or Face Arcade. I'm also a little bit tired of it always being who's the evil mutant of the week, because that's not always what the books were about. You know, it's kind of where I'm landing on it. Mike, you brought up the brood, though.

And one of my favorite X-Men storylines is actually after Byrne left, and it's when they're infected with brood eggs and Kitty Pride, who's pretty young. She's like 15 or 14 at the time. No, she's going to die. And it's this teenager who has to cope. with death and Wolverine's the only person that it's like this body horror that you just don't get

them and that's really what makes the X-Men so cool is that they can tap into all these different genres of all these different types of characters yeah that it is like you can do space opera you can do small horror you can do psychological you know you can do time travel stuff like you know you could do an ancient Egyptian epic with apocalypse if you want like you know you could do um yeah like fighting him in different time periods would be cool every everyone wants age of apocalypse you know uh but actual age of apocalypse with a different time like completely yeah i don't want to see magnito in the holocaust i want to see him fight holocaust yeah exactly tell me what's up i was going to say everyone wants it until they get it and then

we got it and it was not what we wanted so now now we have to do it again but better Well, we're talking about all the horror elements. I think we mentioned Arcade before, and there's certainly like this, like, terrifying X-Men movie to be told with Arcade messing with them, right? Like, there is, to be, I always, he always reminded me of almost like a Batman Rokes Gallery villain. It's like there's this inherent evil torture element to him.

Now, I have a saw-spot my heart for Mojo because that is the number one character that people on YouTube like the fan cast me has because he's also fat, so I guess if they bring Mojo to the big screen that would give me a chance to play him. So I guess I'll also root for a Mojo movie. Tommy is a spineless one.

And I love TV. I mean, Mojo, NandoVee movies did a great video a while back where he pitched Mojo as the villain of Deadpool 3. And I thought that would have been perfect because you have this character breaking the fourth wall, a character who's all about talking about ratings. And for the same reason, Mojo always works so well on X-Men in the animated series, where he could directly call out what they were in.

They were in a Saturday morning cartoon show, and he was able to do this meta-commentary with it that I think would be perfect for Deadpool. So maybe he's in there, too. What do you guys think about Jake Schreer as the director? I think he's perfect. And everything we just talked about with, like, the story that they're going to tell, I think more important than that is that they stay character-focused, stay character-centric. That is the most important parts of whatever they do.

We saw that with the early phases of the MCU. We've heard James Gunn talk a lot about that with his new DCU. And so I'm really excited that they have the same director that did Thunderbolts so successfully. And sometimes I kind of shy away from when Marvel will, like, have a successful movie. And then they take that director and they're like, oh, yeah, he's directing the next four things. It's like, okay, pump your brakes a little bit. I worked for the Roosso, brothers. Exactly.

And so that movie took a bunch of. C-list characters that no one cared about. And I think that did affect the box office. But I think it showed that this director paired with the right writer, he's going to be able to tell a character-focused story. And I think if they do that, they're in good shape. Yeah, he took a bunch of C-list characters nobody cared about and made an A-list movie that nobody cared about. Unfortunately, I still, we just did a video on this, but it blows my mind that movie didn't do better at the box office. But not everybody consumes like every hour of the MCU like I do, I guess. I do wonder, like, if If Jake Schreier gets put in charge of directing an X-Man movie,

if that will, like, boost interest in Thunderbolts. Like, people will revisit Thunderbolts and, like, be able, like, if he delivers this, like, giant tent pole movie about the X-Men, if people will then go back to Thunderbolts, and it will become one of these, like, no, we all loved it. We'll all go back, and there'll be the revisionist history of, like, this was one of the best Marvel movies ever, and I was on that team, but many people didn't see it.

Yeah, the Shawshank Redemption of the MCU, where nobody actually saw it in theaters, but everybody claims that they did, that kind of thing. I mean, I hope so. I hope they do that, and then they want the Indian explained, and they want the Easter eggs, and they come right here to screen crush to listen to them.

With all the X-Men movies that have been out, there have been, I think, 84 X-Men movies at this point. Are there any, and some of the characters we've seen in cameos, like The Dazzler, and Sabrina Carpenter might play The Dazzler, is the latest rumor. Is there any characters who they just didn't make main cast members, who you guys are dying to see on the team? Yeah.

Um, a good storm. There you go. You know, um, a great Emma Frost. Like, uh, that's what we need. I mean, Storm. She taught me what happens when a toad is hit by lightning. You guys can't be too hard on her, but no, Emma Frost was not done right in, um, in that film, man. But, you know, we saw these really cool X-Men costumes at the end of apocalypse, these very 80s-looking costumes.

And I was like, dope. Let's go. All right. We're doing the 80s X-Men. But then they skipped to the 90s and they gave us this Grant Morrison. I'm like, no, but that looks cool. Could you just like stick with something that looks cool? I know Tommy's really pulling for Sidney Sweeney to be Emma Frost. So that'll be good. She's about 20 years too young, but sure. That is. I don't use the phrase Tommy, Sydney, sweetie, and pulling in the same sentence ever again. I personally would like to see, I believe her name is Margaret. Quail, she did that show, The Maid, and she was in the substance. Qualley, yeah. Yeah, sorry, excuse me. I would love to see her as rogue.

I know that's like a popular fancasting, but to give us some more accurate interpretation of rogue, I think that would be fun. Honestly, you could just take the entire Manson family from once in one of the time in Hollywood, make the mutants, call it a day. Because like that, Clinton Tarantino had a real eye for talent there. I don't know. There's so many people who, like, you know, Tommy, you mentioned Jubilee earlier. is somebody who's, like, made a brief appearance in the movies, but we've never really focused on her. I feel like Kitty Pride got kind of shoehorned in and three,

but in the book, she's such a great character, and that, like, she really rubs her the wrong way, for instance, when she keeps getting put at the kids' table. So that might be a fun dynamic as the team gets older. Mike, how about you, besides Storm? I mean, I would love to see, you know, I mean, just take that Deadpool Colossus, put him in a team. He's really fun, you know.

Yeah, to me it's like about fun, right? Like, and like what is the best team dynamic? You know, Cyclops is like pretty easy to cast, just someone you want to punch. This guy. Yeah. But, you know, but like then like other characters, you know, a funny ice man. Like a funny, openly gay, interesting ice man. would be cool.

I think, you know, Angel has always been a fascinating character to me in that, you know, before he was blue, like, you know, like he could pass, right? Like, he could be a mutant and at times he would hide it, you know, with his bulky ass wings, but he still, you know, the way they drew it was like that nobody knew that he was and he was an industrialist.

And I think like a character that's trying to blend in and be a part of um you know the world i would you know i would love to see uh shout out to the late peter david i would love to see um and i know he didn't create him but he defined him a multiple man i was about to say yeah that multiple man book he did where he goes around solving crimes is amazing yeah where he absorbs the information of all the duplicates like yeah i think that's like a fun visual you know um as far as that director i mean yeah it's like on Marvel for not punishing him for making a bomb. It wasn't his fault.

But I think, you know, like, the movie, to me, it was like, it was good, but it wasn't like, oh, my God, I want to see what this guy does next. Like, there didn't feel like a visionary there. You know, like, the void stuff was the most interesting, and you could have, I could see him doing well with a Shadow King based on that. I was about to say Legion, if you guys watching haven't seen, that's pretty great, and the Shadow King's the villain in season was. It's, you know, that shows what a different creative voice can do with this material.

But I also think, you know, the MCU, the handcuffs director so much that if you're even able to finish a film with them, there's a good chance he'll make another because they have such a limited view of what they want from their directors. Yeah, basically somebody to work with actors, right? I don't even know if they've, I know different people have pitched screenplays to them. I don't think they've announced or there's even word of who's in the run. for actually writing it. But then again, who needs a script these days, right? They just kind of go in guns ablazing. What do you guys think about this Wolverine stuff here?

Where Kevin Feigey said they want Hugh Jackman to keep coming back for as long as he can. What the fuck does that mean? Why do you guys make it at? Why the hell not? We have the rest of existence to do X-Men movies without Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Why not? He's great as Wolverine. just keep doing it till he's 90 he'll be dead one day and then you can move on i i love

your jackman's wolverine i say why not me too and but i was i was just going to say and it lets the other x-men breathe by just letting hugh jackman's wolverine go do his own thing and then make x-men movies without wolverine for once yeah i'm not i think that's great because he definitely stole focus from the rest of the team like he does sometimes but you know when the book was great the x-men they really don't lean on wolverine as a main character so I agree with you there. I mean, I've thought some Wolverine I'll talk about in just a little bit. Mike, what about you?

Q Jackman or recast man? I mean, he had a swan song in 2017. Then he had a second swan song in 2024 that opened with a scene from the first swan song. Like, we've said goodbye to this guy and this character so many times. You know, not to mention, like, he's not supposed to age. and you know Wolverine looks long in the saber tooth he is basically Keith Richards at this point

and that like we keep thinking he's done but he keeps coming back and can't be killed by conventional weapons and I mean when you look at the box office of Deadpool Wolverine versus their other movies in the last few years I see the temptation to want to just keep bringing him back but I think that I think that'll hit a snack.

Like, I, and I think the third time will do it. I'm like, okay, how many times? So I, I just think the Deadpool Wolverine was such a good goodbye to that character and such like a tribute to Hugh and when they did the time of your life thing. It's like, now let us move on from that. That was, you said goodbye. Let's say hello to something. something new. I mean, I think

just do X-23. I mean, she's great, and she's really blown up since that movie, too. Yeah. She could be the Wolverine of the new X-Men team, I think. That's what I'm saying, yeah. Yeah. And she could even make reference to the Wolverine, and they don't have to show Hugh Jackman. I don't know. There's other things they can do. They can do

Old Man Logan. Of course. Tommy, what about you? Where you landed on on Jackman, Wolverine? I mean, I'm going to go ahead and be a little more extreme. I think I'm good with Hugh Jackman. I'm done. I think we need a new Wolverine. I think we need a recasted Wolverine.

I psyched you out, Colton. I think we need to, I think they need to just find a new actor that can play this role for another 25 years, the way Hugh Jackman has been shackled to the curse of having the Adamantium Clause. I just feel like I'm all in on Daphne Keene playing X-23 as a Wolverine proxy for the next few. films. I just, I don't understand, I kind of, I'm saying this in a more extreme way than Mike said it. Where do we go from here with Hugh Jackman? We've killed him, we've brought him back. It's, I'm done with it. I'll tell you where. I'll tell you where. Zero percent chance that he's not in Secret Wars, probably in Doomsday, but zero percent chance. Sure. I thought you were going to say

zero percent body fat. Yes, exactly. And look, I, have fun. Put Daphne Keene's X-23 in these X-Men movies. And then you can have Hugh Jackman be like, you know, her checking in every once in a while, Dad. Meg Deadpool and Wolverine too. That'll make a billion and a half dollars and that'll fund, you know, other projects that they can make and maybe take more risks on. I think that that would just be fun. And like I said, 10, 15 years from now, I completely agree. Bring in a new guy to play Wolverine. But I say strike why the adamantium is hot and continue with Hugh Jackman. Well, guys, I do have to cut it off there, but I want to tell you guys what I think about Hugh Jackman coming back as Wolverine. Thanks, everybody, for joining me. Their links are below.

And I got to tell you guys, I don't want to see Hugh Jackman keep coming back. If the MCU is going to grow and move forward, it has to develop new actors in a new younger cast. Going back to that well of nostalgia again and again is going to make it run dry. And this franchise is going to end up like the Star Wars sequel trilogy. But that's just what I think. Give us a new Wolverine. Get Jeremy Allen White in there. Do something else.

do something fun. It doesn't have to be Hugh Jackman all the time. But let me know your thoughts down in the comments below or in our free-to-join Discord server or you can find me on Twitter, blue-sky threads and all the different stuff. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts.

For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.