9) Brad Bird
Brad Bird is responsible for giving us one of the most outright fun superhero movies of the modern era, except it wasn’t for Marvel or DC. It was Pixar’s The Incredibles, which will get a much anticipated belated sequel in 2019. After Bird is done with that, though, we would love to see him lend his talents to a live-action superhero project.
As The Incredibles and The Iron Giant (and, to a less successful extent, Tomorrowland) show, Bird’s signature style is to tell optimistic, heartfelt tales that harken back to old-fashioned ideas of heroism. Given that, we can see him fitting in well at Marvel. It’s perhaps an obvious idea, but we would love to see him handle a Fantastic Four movie, if Marvel’s First Family are ever integrated into the MCU.
8) Christopher McQuarrie
Like Brad Bird, Christopher McQuarrie also directed one of the best instalments of the Mission: Impossible franchise – 2015’s Rogue Nation. His next mission though, should he choose to accept it, should be to direct a superhero movie.
It wouldn’t even be too much of a stretch, as McQuarrie has a long history with the X-Men franchise, having co-written the screenplay for both 2000’s X-Men and 2013’s The Wolverine. Assuming that Bryan Singer will bow out of the franchise, at least for a while, McQuarrie would be a great candidate to helm whatever the next mainstream X-Men movie is.
Alternatively, he could also move over to Marvel and help them get their Inhumans off the ground, as they’re basically the MCU’s version of the X-Men.