Marvel’s Next Move: “Thunderbolts*” Director Jake Schreier Eyed for “X-Men” Reboot
Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is coming off one of the most successful premieres for a Marvel movie in quite a while. His antihero team-up epic, led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova (Pugh is starting to feel like the new face of the MCU going forward), has been a critical and commercial hit for the studio. Now, Schreier is in talks to helm Marvel’s X-Men reboot, returning these beloved mutants to the fold after years in the superhero wilderness. Deadline reports that while the dealmaking is still early, Schreier appears to be the top choice to take on the reboot, which already boasts a script by Michael Lesslie.
Thunderbolts* was that rare thing, a superhero movie without any bonafide superheroes that’s centered on the characters’ myriad mental health issues. Pugh’s Black Widow, along with some of Marvel’s most maladjusted misfits, including Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), all have major issues they’re trying to sort through. And that’s to say nothing about Bob (Lewis Pullman), who might have them all beat in the troubles department. The point is, Schreier and his team of indie world creators made something unique in the MCU, and he does feel like a fine fit to take on an X-Men movie, considering they’ve always been outsiders who have tried to do their best despite heaps of troubles, both internal and external.
It’s not only the critical and commercial success of Thunderbolts* that’s working in Schreier’s favor—he’s also a very big X-Men comics fan—and the experience of working on Thunderbolts* was positive for both filmmaker and studio. Now, Deadline reports that Schreier has begun turning down other jobs, a sign that it looks like he’s about to land one of the biggest directing gigs in town.
Marvel has long preferred letting directors who have swung and connected on MCU films and series have another crack at even bigger titles. This was how the Russo Brothers went from Captain America: The Winter Soldier to Captain America: Civil War and eventually Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Matt Shakman successfully steered Marvel’s first Disney+ series, WandaVision, and landed the coveted job directing The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Getting a fresh X-Men film onto the big screen is a major priority for both Marvel and the fanbase. The X-Men franchise was Fox’s most marquee Marvel IP, resulting in its most critical and commercially successful superhero films—ten in all if you include the Wolverine spinoff movies. Marvel has already restarted its X-Men phase, with the animated X-Men ’97 on Disney+ and, of course, the massive success of Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024. What the studio needs now is a proper X-Men movie to get the gang back together.
Schreier and the X-Men sound like a match made in mutant heaven.
Featured image: Florence Pugh and Jake Schreier on the set of Marvel Studios’ THUNDERBOLTS*. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2025 MARVEL.
