In 2018, it was announced that Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller was directing a project focusing on Kitty Pryde from a script penned by comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis. However, with Disney's recent acquisition of Fox bringing the X-Men formally into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, prospects seem unlikely of the film coming to fruition.
"I love the X-Men," Miller told Comicbook.com. "I don't expect Marvel to call me and say, 'Come do the X-Men,' so I'm not waiting for that. I was really excited about my Kitty Pryde movie. F**k, I love that movie. It'll never happen now."
Miller's excitement is understandable, as he made his directorial debut with a Marvel project in Deadpool. However, after being brought on for the sequel, he ended up leaving the franchise due to creative differences with producer and star Ryan Reynolds. Had the pitch been greenlit by Disney, it would be Miller's opportunity to return to the superhero genre. Additionally, audiences would be able to get a film highlighting Shadowcat after Ellen Page briefly brought her to life in Days of Future Past.
Though the chance of the film being approved grew slimmer with news of the impending Fox/Disney merger, Bendis was apparently still proceeding forward with the script. "Yeah, I’m working on it right now," he tweeted in February of this year. "It’s vvvvvvvery surreal and delightful to be so deep inside the X mansion and the fortress of solitude at the same time." (The latter statement refers to his work on Superman at the time.)
The Kitty Pryde project is just one of the slated X-Men spinoffs that were thrown into disarray with the Disney deal. Before the merge, Fox had a number of planned mutant-helmed films down the pipeline, including Deadpool 3, X-Force and Gambit, with the latter having a particularly lengthy history of being in development hell. After the acquisition, Disney formally canceled all X-Men films in development from Fox, with the upcoming film The New Mutants serving as the final nail in the coffin.