Let's rewind time all the way back to 2017. Disney officially announced its intention to acquire 21st Century Fox, and superhero fans around the world celebrated this prospect. At long last, there was a small but very real possibility of watching the X-Men cross paths with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Now, it's just a matter of time before that day is here.
Mutants have gradually started to appear in more and more Marvel Cinematic Universe projects over the years. It all started when a multiversal variant of Professor Xavier made a brief cameo in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and now Deadpool and Wolverine are sharing the big screen in their own team-up movie. However, almost every Mutant we've seen so far comes from a different reality altogether, or won't stick around in the MCU for very long. So the question remains: When will we see the true iteration of the X-Men make its debut?
Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars will shine the spotlight one last time on multiversal variants of the Mutants seen in the Fox era. After that, the door will be open for new blood to take over the spotlight, and the best part is that we might not have to wait too long to see how it all pans out.
Work on the X-Men movie is already underway
Back in June, Marvel shocked the world by announcing that Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier would helm the upcoming X-Men standalone movie. The news was certainly met with excitement, especially given how critically acclaimed The New Avengers' first theatrical adventure was. However, fans couldn't help but wonder when we'd learn more about this highly anticipated project, and we finally have a promising development update.
During an interview with Empire, Jake Schreier revealed that he has already started working on the X-Men film, and stated that his previous experience with Thunderbolts* will help him "do this [film] a little bit better". Unfortunately, Schreier didn't give any hints as to what potential storyline fans will witness, but hinted that things are looking very promising: "I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting."
Avengers: Secret Wars is slated to be released on December 17, 2027, which means the upcoming X-Men movie won't be released until 2028 at the earliest. Interestingly enough, a report by Variety revealed that Marvel has four movies planned for its 2028 slate. Three of those spots are already taken by a sequel to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Black Panther 3, and Blade, which means there's one spot left for the taking. The X-Men movie could easily fill that void, especially given that work on it has already begun and that the next MCU saga has been long-rumored to shine the spotlight on the Mutant kind.
Given how Marvel decided to skip its iconic Hall H panel during San Diego Comic-Con 2025, all eyes are already set on next year's edition of the event for the superhero giant to take audiences by surprise and drop many shocking announcements. After all, we officially know very little about what's in store after the Multiverse Saga comes to an end with the release of Avengers: Secret Wars.
With a bit of luck, we'll learn more about the X-Men movie at next year's SDCC. And if the highly anticipated project is really slated to be released in 2028, then it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume Marvel could even drop a trailer for those in attendance. Hey, it doesn't hurt to hope.
Avengers: Doomsday will be released on Dec. 18, 2026.