Draft:X-Men in film

X-Men in film dates back to as early as 1994, when 20th Century Fox acquired the feature film and television rights to the team from Marvel for $2.6 million USD after several unsuccessful attempts to adapt the characters at other film studios and distributors. Fox released X-Men in 2000 to critical and commercial success, with the film being credited for rejuvenating mainstream interest in movies featuring and adapting comic book characters alongside other licensed Marvel films released earlier in the decade. X-Men 's success allowed the studio to launch a film franchise centered on the team and associated characters which included a trilogy with the initial cast until 2006, four prequel films (2011-19), a trilogy of Wolverine films (2009-2017), two Deadpool films (2016-18) and the spin-off film The New Mutants (2020), which concluded 20th Century Fox's franchise after a two-decade run.

In 2005, Marvel Studios was formed as an independent arm of the company that intended to house the production of various films using Marvel Comics characters, leading to the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise. Marvel was later acquired by The Walt Disney Company in December 2009 for $4 billion USD, but did not regain the film rights to the X-Men comic books due to Fox's existing licensing deal, barring the team and associated characters from appearing in the MCU or other internally-produced Marvel media. In March 2019, Disney completed their acquisition of 21st Century Fox for a final total of $71.3 billion USD in order to secure 20th Century Fox's various entertainment licenses, including the film rights to the X-Men alongside the Fantastic Four and Deadpool. Control over the characters' film appearances was transferred to Marvel Studios, leading to multiple Marvel-based films at Fox to be stalled and subsequently cancelled, with plans to instead integrate the respective properties into the MCU franchise.

Nelvana Pictures
In 1982, Nelvana optioned the film rights to the X-Men comics from Marvel Entertainment. In 1979, Marvel's former vice president of business affairs Alice Donnenfeld Vernoux, had been tasked by former editor-in-chief Stan Lee with attempting to license off various Marvel Comics properties for adaptation in film and television in light of recent blockbuster successes such as Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977) and Superman (1978). Nelvana founder Michael Hirsh had expressed significant interest in adapting X-Men for live-action film as a fan of the source material, and Nelvana, a studio primarily known for animated television, was similarly transitioning towards theatrical releases with their first animated feature Rock & Rule (1983). The deal between Marvel and Nelvana stipulated that the latter studio would handle production duties on the film, while Marvel would handle responsibilities in merchandising and promotion. Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants writer Chris Claremont was hired by Hirsh to pen the film's screenplay, ultimately producing two story outlines.