Mutant Mania has never been higher folks! And why wouldn’t it be. X-Men ’97 just wrapped, and proved that Marvel’s Merry Mutants are back and more popular than ever.
In fact it was hands down, one of the best projects Marvel Studios has ever done since its inception in 2008. And later this year, we’re getting the return of Logan and Wade Wilson in Deadpool and Wolverine! We even got Beast in The Marvels! And he looked amazing! So where do we go next? Naturally we’re excited for Season 2 of X-Men ’97. But we’re also looking ahead to seeing what Marvel Studios will do with the MCU’s live-action X-Men. And as it turns out, the studio is too!
Everyone, from Deadline to The Hollywood Reporter, is officially reporting that Marvel Studios has officially found a writer for its MCU X-Men reboot. And it’s a solid talent: screenwriter Michael Lesslie. He might not be a household name, but he is coming off a very successful adaptation last year, with the hit prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. He also wrote the 2018 Florence Pugh mini-series The Little Drummer Girl.
This is a pretty exciting news. Clearly, Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel Studios Parliament have been inspired by the success and praise garnered by the first season of X-Men ’97, and are riding the tidal wave of hype through to the live-action film. But naturally, the most important thing is to ensure they do this project in a way that’s *at least as good* as that project, if they’re not going to try and top it.
The history of the X-Men in live action has been hit-and-miss. While the first two X-Men films, First Class, Days of Future Past, and Logan are great movies (I’m a big fan of those), they’re technically not great *X-Men* movies — essentially only capturing the spirit of the comics accurately but little else. What fans obviously want to see is the X-Men we saw from X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men ’97. Accurate, reverent, socially aware, smart, character driven versions of Cyclops, Gambit, Rogue, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Storm, and yes, Wolverine.
At the very least, we’re finally getting a comics accurate version of Wolverine’s costume in Deadpool and Wolverine. Let’s hope that type of trend continues with Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot. Given the blueprint former X-Men ’97 showrunner, Beau DeMayo, and his team have laid out for the mutants, we know Lesslie definitely has his work cut out for him.
To paraphrase Magneto: Kevin Feige — Do not make him let us down!
Stay tuned to The Nerds of Color for more news on Marvel Studios X-Men reboot, including whenever the film gets a director, release date, and a title! You can bet we’ll be right on top of that!