According to Collider, the oft-rumored next core X-Men saga film may have found its director: Simon Kinberg. If that name seems familiar, it’s because he has been involved with almost every entry in the franchise since 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Kinberg has been knee-deep in Fox’s X-Men films as a writer and/or producer for over a decade now, so it comes as little surprise that he is finally getting his shot at helming one of these.
While we have some details on David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 and Josh Boone’s The New Mutants, we know virtually nothing about the next X-Men movie. All we have at the moment is a rumored title (X-Men: Supernova), a rumored storyline (Dark Phoenix), and a statement from actress Sophie Turner (our current Jean Grey) that it will be shooting later this year.
We’ve held off on reporting about the project precisely because we were never really sure if it was an actual “thing” or if some outlets had gotten their wires crossed about The New Mutants. After all, that particular film is supposedly taking place a few years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse and will reportedly contain James McAvoy’s Professor X and Alexandra Shipp’s Storm in some fashion.
It now appears that the rumors are true and another X-Men feature is shooting later this year, ahead of a 2018 or 2019 release. The Dark Phoenix run from the comics does make sense as subject matter, although it will have to be heavily reworked. After all, both X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class touched on plot points and characters from it. Still, it’s not like these film ever closely followed their source material anyway.
With Sophie Turner clearly on board, I suspect the rest of her comrades will be back as well. That means we should at least expect to see James McAvoy, Tye Sheridan (Cyclops), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Nightcrawler), and Lana Condor (Jubilee) back. Possibly Rose Byrne (Moira McTaggert) and Evan Peters (Quicksilver) as well. Less certain are appearances from Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Beast), and Michael Fassbender (Magneto). All of their contracts are up, so returns are entirely up to them (and Fox’s accounting department) at this stage.
