20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise introduced a lot of characters over the years, and while the likes of Charles Xavier and Magneto did claim the spotlight in the later movies, the focus usually found its way back to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.
Logan was by far the most popular character among general audiences, but comic book fans have been waiting for other longtime members of the team - Storm, Rogue and Cyclops, in particular - to be given some much-needed attention on the big screen for many years.
We still don't know much about Marvel's plans for the Mutant Saga, but previous rumors have claimed that Mr. Sinister will be one of the main villains following his debut in the X-Men reboot. Now, Kristian Harloff is reporting that Cyclops and the Summers family will be a "major focus" of the entire saga, with a view to moving away from Wolverine for the time being.
As most X-Men fans will be aware, the Summers family tree is somewhat headache-inducing, and tackling those comic book arcs in any extensive way would certainly be an ambitious prospect. If Sinister is indeed involved, it's probably safe to assume that elements of Inferno will be adapted (Madelyn Pryor might be a long shot), potentially building towards the introduction of Cable, Rachel Summers, the Starjammers and the Shi'ar Empire.
There are numerous possibilities, but - assuming this rumor is on the level - Cyclops fans will no doubt be relieved to hear that the team's fearless leader will finally be getting some love.
We're still waiting on official word on the X-Men movie. Casting is said to be underway, though we haven't heard anything aside from rumors (and there have been a lot of 'em) up to this point. Michael Lesslie is working on the script (we expect another writer to join him at some point), and Schreier recently confirmed that he will helm the project after the trades reported that he was circling the gig.
"I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting," Schreier revealed during a recent interview with Empire. "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.'"
We know that quite a few actors from 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise will reprise their roles for Avengers: Doomsday, but there is a chance that these next Avengers movies will also introduce at least a couple of new mutant characters that will factor into the reboot.
Though nothing has been officially announced, the belief is that X-Men is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2028.