Professor X to Appear in NEW MUTANTS, Which Starts Filming in 2017

Here's a small update about the future of the X-Men movie franchise. During the press junket for X-Men: Apocalypse, writer/producer Simon Kinberg told Collider that a familiar face is going to show up in Josh Boone's New Mutants movie:

“Right now, as the movie exists, Professor X would be a part of a New Mutants movie.”

Gotta love how Kinberg hedges his bets with that wording, leaving Boone the freedom to cut the character out of the movie altogether should the writer/director choose to make that decision. Boone apparently turned in his second draft of the screenplay recently, so Kinberg knows what kind of role Xavier will play in the final film. We aren't sure whether that'll be Patrick Stewart or James McAvoy, but it's a pretty solid bet it'll be McAvoy, unless they incorporate weird time travel or other confusing plotlines into the story. (Besides, Stewart will reportedly reprise the role in a supporting capacity in Wolverine 3 anyway.)

Worth noting is that we know the next X-Men movie is going to jump from Apocalypse's 1980s setting into the 1990s, but it's unclear whether New Mutants is actually that next movie, or if, say, Bryan Singer is going to direct another movie that directly continues the storyline from the end of that film. Also up in the air is how Deadpool will factor into that film (or films)...but at least we know a solo sequel is brewing for that project.

Kinberg also said the the hope is for filming on New Mutants to start sometime early next year, which probably means we'll see the movie come to theaters sometime in 2018 (in the summer, if I had to guess).