X-Men Director Says Marvel Needs To Rest The Mutants For A Bit

Marvel Studios now have the rights back to the X-Men, following the closure of the historic Disney-Fox deal, meaning that the Children of the Atom will invariably be folded into the MCU in time. But one former filmmaker of the franchise thinks Marvel’s Kevin Feige should maybe consider holding off on rebooting Professor X and his team.

Matthew Vaughn, who co-wrote and directed X-Men: First Class back in 2011, was asked what he thinks the studio should do with the X-Men and the Fantastic Four during a chat on the ReelBlend Podcast. After explaining how he believes the First Family are the real big opportunity here, Vaughn revealed that he’d recommended giving the X-Men some “breathing room” because of how many movies Fox have released over the past few years.

“And the X-Men world, I imagine that might get put on ice for a little bit. I think it needs a little bit of breathing room. They made a hell of a lot since First Class, if you think about it.”

The filmmaker might have a point there. Sure, there’ve only been three mainline X-Men films since he left the series, but don’t forget the spinoffs – the two Deadpool movies, The Wolverine and Logan. Plus, The New Mutants is still scheduled to come out next February. We’ve seen a lot of different interpretations of the franchise recently, so it might be in Marvel’s best interests to let the X-Men recharge before unleashing their own version.

Vaughn also recently opened up about his own problems working with Fox on the franchise, describing how he walked away from his plans for a First Class trilogy after execs jumped onto the idea of doing Days of Future Past straight away. The director wanted to make a different second entry first, introducing Tom Hardy as a young Wolverine.

Marvel’s plans for the X-Men aren’t known at present, but perhaps they might become clearer once Dark Phoenix – bursting into cinemas on June 7th – comes and goes.