Work on the new X-Men movie has officially started; reveals director Jake Schreier

Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier has officially started working on the MCU's X-Men movie. He shared the same update during his recent conversation with Empire magazine,

“I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting."

Schreier will take the responsibility to introduce these mutant superheroes in the studio's interconnected universe. It has been a long time coming, as Disney took charge of Fox's intellectual property in 2019. After that, Marvel introduced a few ensemble projects, including the commercially lucrative Avengers: Endgame.

Since then, the studio has been losing momentum with its theatrical offerings. Finally, it experienced a creative revival through Jake Schreier's Thunderbolts* (retitled New Avengers), which was a rare character-driven film in their catalog. Schreier managed to churn out something far more complex and earnest, balancing emotions with spectacle.

That's why he is excited to work on an X-Men movie to explore its intrinsic psychological complexity. He spoke about it during an earlier conversation with The Playlist.

Jake Schreier shares details about his X-Men film and experience with Marvel

Jake Schreier came into the limelight for his work on Marvel's tentpole project, but he has been steadily working in this direction for quite some time. After working on many music videos besides shows like Kidding, Lodge 49, and Dave, he earned an Emmy for his work on the Netflix series, Beef, where he also directed the tone-setting initial episodes.

The show revolved around two emotionally wounded people finding each other at a strange point in their lives. It showed them being pushed to the brink as they reflected on their past traumas. Schreier explored something similar through his characters in Thunderbolts*, who are far from pleased with their choices and live with a constant shame and guilt.

After following their redemption arc, Schreier is ready to take on another emotionally complex task as he is set to direct the new X-Men film. While the specific plot details are yet unclear, Schreier seems excited to bring their dexterity to the screens. During a conversation with The Playlist in July 2025, he revealed what appealed to him about the X-Men.

“I mean, yeah, without going into too much—really, almost any detail. What I can say is, it’s just inherently interesting and complex material," said Schreier.

As Schreier revealed, X-Men stories have often been interpreted as an allegory for the downtrodden or the ostracized on their way to find a sense of belonging in their mutant community. Schreier underlined it by saying,

“The core idea of what ‘X-Men’ is involves complexity. It’s an incredible opportunity with super interesting characters and [much] internal conflict. These characters are wrestling with their identity and place in the world—that’s inherently interesting and complex material.”

While being drawn to these thematic details, Schreier also hopes to balance them with the spectacle expected from such action blockbusters. In line with this, he shared his experience of working on Thunderbolts*, which allowed him the space and scope to work on the massive action set pieces.

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“There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started [Thunderbolts*]. The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it’s more shooting days than I’ve ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, ‘Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.’”

With this experience, the director will hopefully strike a similar tonal balance during his work on X-Men.

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