With the rights having reverted to them after Disney’s Fox buyout, Marvel Studios will soon be rebooting the X-Men within the MCU. Kevin Feige confirmed as much during the Phase 4 announcement at July’s Comic-Con. However, it’s still early stages so all we’ve got to go on right now are rumors and reports about what Marvel might do with the mutants currently in their care. The latest intel though points to the studio turning to an old collaborator to relaunch the franchise.
According to CosmicBookNews, who’ve been supplied the info by scoopster Mikey Sutton, Joss Whedon is being eyed to helm the MCU’s X-Men reboot. Whedon hasn’t worked with the studio since 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, but this rumor says that Marvel’s considering the writer/director for the all-important project. However, the offer has yet to be extended and this is apparently just an internal discussion at the moment.
Of course, Whedon has a long history with the X-Men, including penning the Astonishing X-Men comic book series in the early 2000s. He also did uncredited rewrites on Fox’s original X-Men (memorable jokes such as the “you’re a dick” line are his, but unfortunately, so is the “toad struck by lightning” clunker). X-Men: The Last Stand‘s mutant cure storyline is also derived from one of his Astonishing arcs.
After leaving Marvel, Whedon initially hopped over to DC to reshoot Justice League for them and do a Batgirl movie. He’s since walked away from that, though, and has returned to TV to create his own projects. He’s showrunning HBO’s upcoming The Nevers and is developing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot that he’ll exec produce. Given his affection for the X-Men, I’d imagine he might be tempted to return to cinema if Marvel does end up offering him the gig, but we’ll just have to wait and see how this all shakes out.
