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Marvel Studios’ reboot of the X-Men movies is one of the most highly anticipated events in fandom, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe speeds towards the game-changing event that is Avengers: Doomsday. After that film and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, the MCU will be getting a soft reboot, with a new continuity that opens the door for the X-Men franchise to finally run alongside the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man. So getting the MCU X-Men right is a big task that could truly make or break the future of the MCU.
Today brings an interesting update from X-Men reboot movie director Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*), regarding the script writing process. Two of Schreier’s closest collaborators are officially on board to do a draft of the X-Men script: Joanna Calo and Sonny Lee Sung Jin.
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Netflix’s Beef Team Is Writing the MCU X-Men Reboot
Calo and Sung Jin are two of the creative forces behind Netflix’s Beef (which is about to premiere its second season); Lee “Sonny” Sun Jin serves as creator, showrunner, writer, and producer, while Calo is part of the writing team (Schreier directed the series). Beef swept the Emmys and won three Golden Globes with its first season, while Calo has been one of the most successful writers on TV in recent years, with screen credits that include Netflix’s BoJack Horseman, HBO Max’s Emmys juggernaut, Hacks, Hulu’s Emmy darling series The Bear, as well as co-writing Thunderbolts*. It was Calo, in particular, that many fans wanted to see working on the X-Men reboot alongside Jake Schreier; getting Lee Sun Jin involved seems like a big extra bonus.
Beef became such a big breakout success largely due to it being a genre-defying rollercoaster ride. The series (about a fender-bender between two suburban drivers, which escalates into a wild feud) was so many things at once: drama, deep character study, comedy, with some pretty serious moments of action, some of which bordered on horror (that panic room door… sheeesh). The one thing that the hit animated series X-Men ’97 made clear was that Marvel fans love the X-Men franchise not just because it’s about an oppressed group of superpeople (mutants), but also because the people in the group are an entire telenovela’s worth of messy. The X-Men team has romantic drama, deep life trauma, interpersonal conflict, constant identity crisis (superheroes, freedom fighters, students, militarized revolutionaries), and often some characters or concepts that deep into deep sci-fi (the Phoenix Saga, Mojoworld, Mister Sinister, time travel wars) or horror (The Brood, Shadow King, Onslaught). The team that handles the film needs to be able to balance all those genre influences and still tell a focused character/ensemble story; the team behind Beef are about the only ones we trust to do it.
Now, the pressure is one even more for Beef Season 2 to prove that the show wasn’t just some flash in the pan – and that hopefully our MCU X-Men are in great hands.
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on December 18th and will bring back many of the leading actors from Fox’s X-Men movie franchise. Are you happy with how the creative team is shaping up? Let us know on the Forum!
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