The X-Men are coming to the MCU. We’ve known that for a while, but it’s getting near enough that Kevin Feige feels okay talking openly about it. And with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the first rebooting of a Fox Marvel property, hitting a home run at the box office, all eyes are on what Feige can do with the merry mutants.
Recently, Feige said this version of the X-Men from Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier and writer Michael Lesslie will be “youth-oriented”, likely focusing on the school aspect of the team. In a new report from Variety, it’s confirmed that young talent rather than A-listers would be sought during the casting process, in an effort to “keep costs down.”
That makes sense. Marvel Studios is facing a new reality when it comes to superhero movies. The billion-dollar grosses are no longer a sure thing; it’s more likely that a movie will max out at half that amount. Budgets have to change to compensate. Plus, an X-Men movie is going to be heavy in VFX and in the ensemble’s size.
So while X-Men is top priority right now, the same can’t be said for Blade or Deadpool 4, according to the report.
This should be obvious by now when it comes to Blade, which cast Mahershala Ali in the role of the vampire antihero seven years ago. Script rewrites have been a constant, delaying the production so bad that directors and stars haven’t stuck around. Ali remains, but even that seems tenuous.
As for Deadpool 4, one might think Marvel is eager to follow-up on the $1.3B success of Deadpool & Wolverine. But Ryan Reynolds has a mystery Deadpool crossover that he’s working on first, and after that, who knows what’s next for the Merc with a Mouth? Maybe a spot on the X-Men?
