The MCU’s X-Men reboot is not going to play it safe. Writer Lee Sung Jin, the creator of Netflix’s Beef, has offered the clearest look yet at how Marvel Studios is approaching its long-awaited mutant reboot, and the mandate from the top is refreshingly bold: start over completely.
Feige’s Clean-Slate Mandate
Speaking with Deadline, Lee compared the project to his experience co-writing Thunderbolts and revealed that the X-Men film actually comes with fewer creative restrictions, not more. “I’d say there were actually more parameters on Thunderbolts because it was plugging into an existing arc and existing characters, whereas with X-Men, Kevin [Feige] just wants to take a big swing and start anew, not be beholden to any of the movies that have come before,” Lee said, per Gizmodo’s coverage of the interview.
That is a rare mandate for an MCU project, and it suggests the studio is treating the reboot as a true fresh start rather than a continuation of two decades of Fox films. Lee is writing alongside director Jake Schreier, who helmed Thunderbolts, and The Bear co-showrunner Joanna Calo. According to Lee, Schreier “has such a clear vision in terms of wanting to get back to character first, and to what is exciting about those early [Chris] Claremont-run comics, which was all about team dynamics. There were a lot of soapy elements to those comics. We’ve been in the room every day together.”
Every X-Men Character Is On The Board
Lee also made clear this is a passion project rooted in lifelong fandom. He described watching the X-Men animated series with his dad every Saturday morning as a kid, and the surreal experience of now shaping the team’s future: “To be able to look around this Marvel conference room and have every X-Men character on the board and be able to spitball and freestyle on, ‘What about this person?’ It’s so emboldening because you’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this isn’t going to be a safe movie. This is actually going to be a really exciting new take.'”
His guiding test for every creative choice is simple: “Would younger me want to run to the movie theater to watch this? Are we honoring all the amazing work that the comics set up? Are we playing it safe? Are we pushing things?”
The Road to Mutants in the MCU
The reboot does not yet have a release date, though the film is reportedly eyeing production ahead of a potential 2028 debut. Before then, fans will get their first full-scale dose of X-Men in the MCU this December, when Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier, Ian McKellen’s Magneto, and James Marsden’s Cyclops appear in Avengers: Doomsday. The contrast is the point: Doomsday celebrates the legacy cast, while the reboot builds something entirely new from the comics up.
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