Earlier today, Fox finally confirmed that X-Men writer and producer Simon Kinberg would direct X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which will be his directorial debut. Now, longtime X-Men director Bryan Singer has taken to Instagram to pass the torch on to Kinberg.

#torchpass @xmenmovies @simondavidkinberg #xmen #darkphoenix Epic story in great hands!

A post shared by Bryan Singer (@bryanjaysinger) on

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Kinberg has been rumored to direct X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which he also wrote, since February. Although he doesn't have any experience behind the camera, Kinberg has been involved with the X-Men films since 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand, which he wrote. He later came aboard the franchise as a producer with 2011's X-Men: First Class.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix will be the third X-Men film that Singer has not directed, following 2005’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class, which were directed by Brett Ratner and Matthew Vaughn respectively. It was first revealed that Singer wouldn't be returning to direct the follow-up to X-Men: Apocalypse late last year, with Fox reportedly set to craft a reboot of the X-Men universe. However, while Singer won't be involved with the next few X-Men films at Fox, the director did head back behind the camera to direct the pilot episode of Fox's upcoming The Gifted, the franchise's first live-action X-Men series.

Opening November 2, 2018, X-Men: Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Alexandra Ship as Storm, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler. Following last week's rumor, two-time Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain is currently in talks to play the film's villain Lilandra, the empress of the Shi’ar Empire.

(via ScreenRant)