Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty ImagesMarvel made a smart call in bringing the Russo brothers back to helm more Avengers movies, but a lot has changed in its cinematic universe since Endgame. There are several more super-teams out there, and more still waiting in the wings. With the Thunderbolts (aka the New Avengers), the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men all joining the MCU, the Russos need all the help they can get. Fortunately, Marvel’s made another wise decision regarding its mutants. Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier is set to helm the franchise’s big X-Men reboot, and in a recent interview, he revealed that the film is finally beginning production.“I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting,” Schreier told Empire.Schreier’s experience on Thunderbolts will surely be a boon to the new X-Men film. Before Thunderbolts, his biggest projects were Netflix’s Beef and Lucasfilm’s Skeleton Crew. He’d never helmed a major film, and Marvel projects are very different from the average blockbuster. They come with their own expectations and cinematic language, which Schreier learned on the job.Thunderbolts gave Schreier the tools he needed to helm an action movie like X-Men. | Marvel Studios“There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started [Thunderbolts],” he said. “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 was a solid film, so one can only imagine what’s in store for X-Men now that Schreier’s found his footing. Rebooting one of the franchise’s most beloved properties won’t be an easy project, and by all accounts, X-Men is also rebooting the MCU itself, making it the most crucial piece of the puzzle after Avengers: Secret Wars.X-Men will be a blank slate for the MCUMarvel is finally saying goodbye to Fox’s X-Men. | 20th Century StudiosThe Russos are currently filming the first half of their next Avengers saga, Doomsday, and Secret Wars shouldn’t be far behind. The two-part team-up is Marvel’s Hail Mary, an attempt to redeem the franchise after years of stumbling in the dark. But Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is already thinking ahead to the state of the MCU after Secret Wars. In a wide-ranging July interview, Feige revealed that Marvel’s multiverse will consolidate into a single clean timeline after Secret Wars, a reset that could officially begin with X-Men.Though members of Fox’s original X-Men films will once again return for Secret Wars, it will probably be their last adventure. Schreier will select an all-new cast of characters to rebuild the mutant team, with an emphasis on younger actors. X-Men could follow Charles Xavier’s first students, reintroducing characters like Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Storm as gifted youngsters with untapped potential. Mutants seem to be leading the charge into the MCU’s new frontier, which only emphasizes the importance of a seasoned director. After Thunderbolts, Schreier’s as ready as he’ll ever be.