Every movie starts with a script and a movie we’ve all been waiting for is finally getting one. Michael Lesslie, the writer of last year’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes, is in negotiations to write Marvel Studios’ upcoming live-action X-Men movie.
Deadline broke the news of the hire, which was first teased by TheInsider earlier this month. It’s a huge piece of news because it shows that Marvel Studios and its president Kevin Feige have concluded the long search for an idea and direction to take X-Men, a group of characters that was unavailable to them for most of the history of the MCU. That, of course, changed when Disney bought Fox and in the past few years, we’ve slowly started to see the iconic characters pop up: Kelsey Grammar as Beast in The Marvels. Patrick Stewart as Professor X in Doctor Strange 2. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in Deadpool and Wolverine. And, of course, the Disney+ show X-Men ‘97.
But a live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the X-Men is the big one—the one we all imagined when Feige got control of Fox’s characters (Fantastic Four too but more so this). Seeing the mutants share the screen with the Avengers is the surefire next way to reach the heights of Avengers: Endgame. With a script now in the works, talks can begin to turn to casting and directors. Will it be a whole new team of X-Men? Will Feige and Marvel pick and choose from the Fox cast? There are so many questions that are now getting closer than ever to being answered because a script is in the works.
As for Lesslie himself, in addition to the Hunger Games adaptation, he also had a hand in the upcoming Now You See Me threequel, suggesting he’s someone Hollywood is high on in terms of franchises. But few franchises in history are as big as X-Men, so hopefully he takes thing to a whole new level.
We expect to learn much, much more about what’s coming at Marvel Studios both at San Diego Comic-Con in July and D23 Expo in August.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
