With their own film, the X-Men are getting closer to becoming a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel Studios and screenwriter Michael Lesslie, of “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” are in negotiations to create the first “X-Men” film since Disney acquired the mutant superhero series in 2019 when it acquired 21st Century Fox.
Kevin Feige will produce the movie, as he does with all Marvel Studios productions, but no other details, such as the director or cast, have been confirmed. Over the past two years, Marvel has been gradually introducing mutants into the MCU. These have included cameos from Beast (Kelsey Grammer) in the post-credits scene of 2023’s “The Marvels,” and namesake and leader of the X-Men, Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” as well as brief mentions in “Ms. Marvel” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Marvel Studios most recently had its greatest reviews in a long time with the Disney+ animated series “X-Men ’97,” which is an ongoing, within-a-timeline continuation of the 1990s animated “X-Men” series.
Lesslie, who was born in Britain, began his professional career in 2007 by turning the 1994 movie “Swimming With Sharks” into a play that made its West End premiere. In 2015, he co-wrote and executive produced the BBC/AMC limited series “The Little Drummer Girl,” which is an adaptation of the John le Carré novel directed by Park Chan-wook and stars Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgard, and Florence Pugh. In 2016, he collaborated with all three of them again on a film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” directing it for director Justin Kurzel and starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.
Lesslie most recently co-wrote and produced a feature film adaptation of “Hamlet,” directed by Aneil Karia (“Top Boy”) and starring Riz Ahmed, Joe Alwyn, Morfydd Clark, and Timothy Spall. He also co-wrote the upcoming film “Now You See Me 3.”
