When it comes to continuing the original X-Men series, 20th Century Fox hasn't made their upcoming plans immediately clear. We've heard rumors that filmmaker Bryan Singer will return after X-Men: Apocalypse to direct the 7th X-Men movie. It will be his fifth time directing a big Mutant adventure, and counting the Wolverine and Deadpool spinoffs, this will be the 11th film in the franchise, excluding the recently confirmed Deadpool 2, X-Force, Gambit and New Mutants. Aside form those spinoffs, it sounded like 20th Century Fox was ready to bring its X-Men saga as it now stands to a close. But there have been conflicting rumors about a soft reboot. Today we learn that the rumored X-Men 7 may actually revolve around one of Marvel comics' biggest story arcs.

This latest bit of X-Men intel comes from Heroic Hollywood. They claim that the next non-spinoff X-Men movie will be based on the Dark Phoenix saga. The original trilogy delved into this, culminating with X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006. But because of the altered timeline made possible in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past, these events can be rebooted and told properly. This version is said to be altered from both the way it first played out in the movies and in the comics. Especially since Wolverine won't be a part of the action. In a previous interview, producer Simon Kinberg had this to say to about the possibility of a Dark Phoenix movie in an interview with IGN from back in January.

"I think everything that hasn't been told from First Class and Days of Future Past is up for grabs going forward, so it would absolutely be a story we could tell in a different way."

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner takes over the role of Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse. Originated on screen by Famke Janssen, this will be a much younger version of the character. While Bryan Singer isn't confirmed to direct the next straight X-Men movie, he did have this to say in a recent interview with EW.

"Jean, she has not only has her telekinesis and her telepathy, but she also knows inherently that something darker and more powerful is growing inside her and she doesn't quite know what it is."

So, it sounds like the Dark Phoenix will first start to emerge in X-Men: Apocalypse. It has been stated by the filmmakers in the past that the New Mutants introduced in Apocalypse will likely return in another movie, with new versions of Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Jubilee all getting an age make-over this summer. It isn't known what will happen next in this Marvel mutant universe. We know that 20th Century Fox has an untitled Marvel movie set for October 2017, but they haven't announced what that will be yet. X-Men: Apocalypse arrives this May. Wolverine 3 will be in theaters March of next year. Aside from that, none of the other X-Men franchise movies have confirmed release dates. So we'll have to wait and see.