Thunderbolts* may not have ended up performing exceptionally at the box office, but it was positively received among audiences and critics, including CinemaBlend’s Thunderbolts* review giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Then mere days after the team we now know as the New Avengers joined forces on the 2025 movies schedule, it was reported that director Jake Schreier was being lined up to helm the MCU’s X-Men reboot. Now Schreier has shared the “biggest learning curve” that came from his time on Thunderbolts*, and it’s left me feeling more confident in him being selected to direct the mutant-centric upcoming Marvel movie.
The filmmaker shared with Empire that he and his team have started working on X-Men, though as is usually the case with Marvel Studios productions, specific details are being kept under lock and key. But as far as the big takeaway from Thunderbolts* that stuck with him when it comes to working with a group of Marvel heroes, Jake Schreier said this:
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.’
Thunderbolts* brought together Bucky Barnes, Yelena Belova, John Walker, Red Guardian and Ghost (not so much Taskmaster) against their shared enemy of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, with Bob, a.k.a. Sentry, also joining them once his Void alter ego was neutralized. Action is to be expected in a Marvel movie, but Jake Schreier soon realized as Thunderbolts* was filming that there needed to be a fine balance between that aspect and also delivering those more emotional moments. So when the time comes for cameras to roll on the X-Men reboot, it sounds like he has a better handle on how to allot time in order to achieve said balance.
I was already sold on Jake Schreier being a good pick for X-Men because of how much I liked Thunderbolts*. However, him discussing this learning experience has me hopeful that this new take on one of Marvel’s most popular properties could turn out to be an even better product. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Michael Lesslie is writing the reboot’s script.
While it remains to be seen when we’ll meet the team of X-Men that will become mainstays in the MCU, December 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday will see actors from the original X-Men film series reprise their roles, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, Kelsey Grammer, Alan Cummings and James Marsden. This incarnation of the X-Men will team up with the Avengers, New Avengers and Fantastic Four against Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.
