Marvel's New X-Men Film Reportedly Focuses on the School, Skips the Phoenix Force, and Fans Eye a Cable Casting

Marvel's first X-Men film in the MCU is reportedly going to start small, focusing on the school, on prejudice, and on a younger generation of mutants, rather than jumping straight into world ending threats. On top of that, new reports say the romance will be between Scott and Jean, the Phoenix Force story won't feature in the upcoming stories, and fans are speculating about a possible Cable casting.

There are two new stories coming for the new X-Men in the MCU, and three for the X-Men overall, because the Fox X-Men are returning in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Even though it might not seem like it, their story does connect to the new X-Men team, and we're going to see that play out in Secret Wars.

Sadie Sink's Jean Grey is headed to Avengers: Secret Wars, and insiders say more new X-Men will join her

We've heard from many different insiders at this point that some of the new X-Men will be in Secret Wars. One of them is already confirmed: Sadie Sink, who plays Jean Grey, is going to be in Avengers: Secret Wars. Deadline confirmed this a while ago.

We did get the post credits scene that shows the Hulk getting collected by Doctor Doom, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be in Avengers: Doomsday. It does definitely hint at it, but we'll have to wait and see, because from what we've heard before, the Hulk was just going to be in Secret Wars. Along with that report, we heard that Spider-Man wasn't really going to be in Doomsday too much but is going to play a major role in Secret Wars. That would make sense, because when we left him and Jean Grey at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it didn't seem like there was much setup for Secret Wars.

Since Jean Grey is confirmed for Secret Wars, other insiders have said she's not the only mutant who's going to be there. There are reportedly going to be a handful of new X-Men in the film, which means at some point they will team up with the older X-Men who survive Avengers: Doomsday. That's going to be really cool, because we're going to see variants. I wonder what it will be like when James Marsden's Cyclops sees Sadie Sink's Jean Grey, because it kind of seems like his Jean Grey has died. We'll have to wait until Avengers: Doomsday to find out.

Spider-Man's mutant inhibitor from Brand New Day could drive the X-Men versus humanity story

Spider-Man is going to be key here. We've heard from many different insiders that the new X-Men story after Secret Wars, with the new X-Men film, will heavily involve what happened in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and that Spider-Man will actually appear. That's not confirmed at this point, but it is what some insiders are saying, and it makes sense considering what happened in Brand New Day.

Some mutants are reportedly going to blame Spider-Man for creating a mutant inhibitor device, which is exactly what he did in Brand New Day. That was always going to be a big point moving forward in the MCU: humanity versus the mutants, and how humans can suppress them or weaponize something against them when they're so powerful. There are other things like the Sentinels, but Spider-Man literally created a device that stopped Jean Grey's powers.

That's one part of it. The other part we're hearing about is that Jean Grey did some damage to some humans, and that's going to come into play. Some humans are going to point to what one very young girl was able to do, jumping inside people's minds, and argue that mutants have to be controlled and can't be allowed to run free. That's going to start the biggest storyline for the mutants, one that's going to keep going in the MCU: the X-Men versus humanity. Spider-Man's actions in Brand New Day are apparently going to play a pretty big role in it.

The first X-Men film reportedly focuses on the school and prejudice instead of world ending threats

When it comes to the specific story of the X-Men in the MCU, what we've heard tells me Marvel is going to do it right. According to Charles Murphy of Murphy's Multiverse, rather than jumping straight into world ending threats, "the movie will focus on the school, on prejudice, on the interpersonal friction between a younger generation of mutants finding their identity in a world that fears them."

So it's starting off right, and I would say it's going to be intimate. We know Mr. Sinister is a villain in the movie, so we know who the villain's going to be, but there's so much to the X-Men. A lot of the characters are really deep, and so are the relationships they have with each other. It's also a school. There's a lot it looks like they're going to dive into in a pretty deep way for the first X-Men movie we're getting in the MCU, and I'm really happy about that.

I like that it's going to focus on the school and on the core X-Men story, and then on characters like Jean Grey. Spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day if you haven't seen it: she did some things because people kidnapped her sister, and they killed her sister. So in her mind, everything she did was completely justified, and it's the humans who started it. She only did all of those things because the humans captured her sister. That's going to be a really big thing, it's really deep, and I can't wait to see it.

Scott and Jean, not Emma Frost, will reportedly be the romance in the first X-Men film

There's been a lot of talk about Emma Frost and Cyclops. A lot of people were saying that Spider-Man and Jean Grey are going to be a thing and that Scott is going to get with Emma right away, since there are some stories where they're together. I'm happy to report that The Cosmic Circus says no: the romantic dynamic we'll see in the first X-Men film will be between Scott and Jean.

That's how I think it should be. Yes, Scott and Emma are a thing in some stories, and yes, Spider-Man has been with a lot of people in Marvel Comics. It's actually kind of funny how many. But I think if you're going to do the X-Men right, if you're going to have them in the MCU for the first time and really tackle their key stories, it has to be Scott and Jean.

The Phoenix Force reportedly won't feature in the upcoming X-Men stories

I've been hearing a lot of people say they don't really want Marvel to do the Phoenix Force story because it's already been done a lot. Good news for those people: we're hearing that the upcoming X-Men stories in the MCU are not going to feature the Phoenix story. That doesn't mean it won't come later down the road, because I truly believe it is going to.

Still, I don't think it's necessary to start off with the Phoenix Force. There's a lot they can do with Mr. Sinister, Madelyne Pryor, the clone, and Cable without diving into it right away. Ultimately, though, the Phoenix Force has to come into the MCU. It's such a big part of Marvel Comics and of many big events, like Avengers vs. X-Men, along with little events too. I think it's a necessity at some point, but it looks like Marvel isn't going to dive right into it, and I don't think they need to.

We might get one, two, or three X-Men films and other films before we actually get to the Phoenix Force storyline. I think some fans will be happy about that, and if you're not, it will come eventually. The first story we get just isn't going to focus on it.

Fans are speculating about a possible Cable casting

There's a really interesting rumor going around. Fans are speculating that Cody Rhodes has been cast as Nathan Summers, also known as Cable, in the MCU. He recently used the X-Men theme in his Instagram story, and he posted a picture of himself at Marvel Studios. It's not confirmed, and it's speculation, but if they did cast him as Cable, I'd say that's pretty near perfect casting.

I know a lot of people really like him. Looks wise, I think he really has the look for Cable. Does he have the acting chops? I think so. I think he could do it.

Since Mr. Sinister is the villain for the X-Men film at first, it does seem like they're ultimately going to get into Jean Grey getting cloned, Madelyne Pryor, Nathan Summers being born, Mr. Sinister getting him, and him turning into Cable. That whole story is right there, so it would make sense for them to cast Cable. This would presumably be future Cable, depending on how they handle the time travel storyline, and they'd have to cast a younger one depending on how they play it out. I'm pretty sure it'll probably be like X-Men '97. I think a lot of what we're going to see in the first X-Men movie we've already seen in X-Men '97, which I don't think anyone will really complain about, because it was pretty awesome.

Iceman is reportedly being cast as the First Class team comes together

We've also just heard that Iceman, Bobby Drake, is being cast right now. We've heard they're going to do the First Class team, so Beast and Iceman should be coming up. The other First Class castings are already in place: Jean, Cyclops, and Warren Worthington as Angel. I know everyone is waiting for Bobby Drake, and hopefully he's done with respect on screen. Same thing with Cyclops, and I think we get a redemption for James Marsden's Cyclops in Avengers: Doomsday, which is really exciting.

There's a lot of casting happening right now, and I'm sure we'll get some news about the Beast casting pretty soon as well. Marvel is pretty much done with casting because shooting for the X-Men isn't too far away, and Marvel has basically said they're about to dive into it.

I think this all builds toward some type of Avengers versus the X-Men

A lot of these new details are, I think, really awesome. I think the story we're going to get is pretty deep, pretty exciting, and very connected to the overall MCU. Even though we're going into a soft rebooted MCU that's going to heavily focus on the X-Men, it still reaches into the broader MCU.

Ultimately, I think it connects to the Avengers, who will kind of face the same choice the humans are facing: deciding whether the X-Men are good or bad. Some of them are bad, but some of them are good. So I think we do eventually get some type of Avengers versus the X-Men, which I can't wait for. In the meantime, I think the first story is going to be really awesome, and we start to see it in Secret Wars.

Which part of the new X-Men plans are you most interested in?