Welcome to the X-Men, Bitch!
It’s being reported that Josh Schwartz, creator/writer of shows like The O.C., Chuck, and Gossip Girl, will be penning the next X-Men movie, to be tentatively titled either “X-Men: First Class” or “Young X-Men”, depending on which news article you read. All that seems to be established so far is that it will be a story of teenage mutants dealing with their powers — hence the reason for bringing Josh Schwartz on to write the script. Whether those teenagers will be younger versions of the adult X-Men that have already been in the films or the New Mutants from the 80s or the lesser-known characters from the recent “Young X-Men” series, it remains to be seen.
So … take that for what it’s worth. I’ve actually been enjoying Chuck, and having watched more of The O.C. with my wife than I care to admit, I have to say that when Schwartz himself wrote the episodes, they seemed to work well. He’s a comic book geek, so he “gets it”, and hopefully he’ll carry that over into the franchise. As far as character development is concerned, he really can’t do much worse than Brett Ratner did with X3, as far as I’m concerned. The X-Men comics have always worked first and foremost as a metaphor for 1) racism/intolerance and 2) the anxiety of puberty. And I feel confident that Schwartz can at least pull off the second half of that equation.
To date, no director has been attached to the film yet.