Marvel Studios Reportedly Approached Ryan Coogler to Direct X-MEN Reboot
Before Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier shot to the top of the list of filmmakers to take on Marvel’s X-Men movie, a new report reveals that the studio also had its sights on Black Panther filmmaker Ryan Coogler at one point.
According to veteran film journalist Jeff Sneider:
“I know they did talk to Ryan Coogler at one point...but Coogler, with the timing, you know, he'd have to focus on Black Panther 3. He’s needed in another corner of the universe.”
Coogler is currently riding high with his genre-bending vampire thriller Sinners, which is breaking box office records. But it’s easy to see why Marvel would consider him as he’s proven he can build complex characters, tap into rich cultural themes, and deliver spectacle with heart.
That’s the kind of balance an X-Men movie needs, and Schreier will be able to deliver that as well. His work on the Netflix series Beef and Thunderbolts* was awesome, and with Thunderbolts scoring an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, it seems Feige and company are happy with what the filmmaker delivered.
As for where the X-Men reboot stands creatively, Michael Lesslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) was brought in last May to write the first draft. But if Marvel’s history is any indication, expect more writers to join in before production gets underway.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has made it clear that the return of the mutants is central to the next chapter of the MCU. In an earlier interview, he shared:
“...knowing that, thanks to various corporate studio entity deals, we now have 1000s of characters back — characters I hadn’t frankly thought about in many years because we didn’t have the rights to them.
"Now that we do, it is great fun thinking [about who we can finally use]. Our animated series X-Men ’97 was sort of the first taste of people reuniting with the X-Men mythology and that storyline. The response to that series just further excited us about how to bring the soap opera and the saga of the mutants to the MCU."
There was also talk at one point of Jordan Peele taking the reins of an X-Men project, but those discussions reportedly didn’t go far, as he’s focused on telling original stories.
With the Multiverse Saga wrapping up in a few years, the X-Men are expected to take center stage in the MCU’s future. Feige “has told colleagues he has a 10-year plan” for the X-Men characters after they are properly and formally introduced into the MCU.
It’s going to be really interesting to see how this next X-Men movie turns out.
