Are you behind on what’s happening in the X-Men franchise? Read below for current updates on all future X-Men films!

Wolverine: A script is finished, though it may go through additional re-writes once Fox signs the director for the project. Len Wiseman seems to be a front-runner for the film, though there are other names being thrown around. An official announcement should be given this Summer. Tentative release year is 2008, though it could be pushed back to mid 2009 depending on the production requirements.

Magneto: Director, David Goyer is currently working on the script previously written by Sheldon Turner. No official date has been set for filming, and casting has not yet begun on the film, though canidate names are being thrown around for ‘Young Magneto’. The studio and producers very much want Sir Ian McKellen involved in some shape or form. The tentative release year is 2009.

X-Kids: Zak Penn will write and direct the film featuring a group of mutants (rumored to be young adults). Not much activity has developed regarding this spin-off, since Penn is busy with other projects for Marvel Entertainment. The film setting was changed entirely a couple months ago, though nothing has been greenlighted yet. There is no tentative release year, but don’t expect this film until 2010 or later.

Emma Frost: Not much activity is going on, although Fox was working with director David O Russell (Three Kings) on developing the project some time ago. At the moment, it’s in the very early stages, and not a sure-deal.

X-Men 4: No activity has taken place, regarding continuing the story from X-Men: The Last Stand. The biggest problems? The ever-increasing budget and casting. Fox is looking to continue the franchise through spin-off’s for the time being. In our opinion, Fox may opt to focus on a new team of mutants (featuring old and new characters) and move the story in a new direction. This may become Zak Penn’s spin-off idea?

From Cinematical.com:

“The original idea was to have me do a young X-Men spin-off, a spin-off of the young X-Men characters. But someone came up with a pretty interesting idea which I can’t discuss. I was pretty taken by it, as was the studio. I have to give him credit, it was this guy who worked with me named Mike Chamoy — he worked a lot with me on X3.” said Zak Penn, who was one of two writers for X3.

He came up with how to do a young X-Men movie which is not what you’d expect. We’ll see; I still have to talk to Fox, set the story down … and then it will take a year — maybe two years — to get together. Put it this way, if you agree to do one of the X-Men movies, it could end up happening four or five years down the line. Which is fine with me; it’s just not my focus right now.”

Producer Ralph Winter talked with InFuze about the upcoming 20th Century Fox release Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and talked a bit about the X-Men franchise.

The big question many fans have is why did they choose to kill-off Cyclops? “In terms of the story, killing Cyclops was about demonstrating the enormous power that Jean Grey came back with, and this conflict that was raging inside her.” said Winter. “I can’t recall any discussion we’ve had about Cyclops coming back. But hey, it’s science fiction, it’s fantasy. Anything could happen.”

Click here for much more, including what he has to say on future spin-off films, and characters in the X-Men universe!