After Disney acquired Fox and all of his assets earlier this year – and so did Marvel Studios, his favorite arm – it has the film rights to the weirdest superheroes of all, the X-Men. And now the movie studio is facing a unique puzzle.
Marvel’s license sales in the 1990s forced the Marvel Cinematic Universe to build an area around the Avengers and the Iron Man. But with Tony Stark dead after Endgame and Mutant’s funny gang in the game, how can they be woven into the structure of the largest and, giving or taking on a competitor, the only successful common film universe in history?
To give proper weight to this question and to give it due consideration, we have consulted experts. Cullen Bunn, a longtime comic author whose credits include Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, Magneto and X-Men Blue; Zachary Jenkins, comic journalist, podcaster and founder and editor-in-chief of The Xavier Files and Hox Pox Tox; Chris Sims, comic journalist, podcaster and co-author of X-Men ’92 and The Deadpool: Bad Blood Graphic Novel; Dungeons & Dragons, co-author of the Young Adventurer’s Guide and publisher of Shout Out, Andrew Wheeler; and Kelly Thompson, Eisner-nominated last year, among others, for her work on Uncanny, Rogue & Gambit and the (now completed) Mr. & Mrs. X.
(Ed. Note: Chris Sims occasionally writes for Polygon.)
It’s all speculation at this point, but the familiarity of these experts with the Children of the Atom gives them more authority to predict exactly how Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Shadowcat, Storm, and the rest could fit into the Tony franchise. Heavily built ,
Mark Brooks / Marvel Comics
My first question to the X-Perts concerned the format. Given that the Fox film series was broadly content to use a small fraction of the millions of mutants that have emerged over the years – so many that there were multi-year storylines that emerged from the mutant population and – I wondered if it might be easier to make just one TV show (hopefully more Legion and less The Gifted) than to use in the movies.
Thompson was pretty democratic on this matter: “The bank is very deep when it comes to the X-Men, and there are so many different kinds of stories and genres going beyond the typical superhero offer – there is so much profound strange and cool X-stuff that I would like to reinvent for the big screen and see contextualized. So, while I would love to see an X-Men movie that’s as brave and integrated as the Avengers, I’d love to watch a television series following students at Xavier’s Academy, you know you? And can someone please combat the technet immediately? I have to see that. “
Recognizing the benefits of both sides, Bunn said, “It may be best to introduce them to a television program, which takes some time and presents different characters over several seasons. That means I’d rather see her on the big screen. I feel like the X-Men deserve this kind of treatment, and a talented author and director can do that in a way that brings them seamlessly into the MCU fold. “
Sims, who came to the X-Men in the 90s with the legendary Fox Kids cartoon, was more discursive. “(The cartoon) had a tight core cast (even smaller than the ( .) comics at the time), but there were a lot of guest appearances pointing to this huge world,” he said. “Believe it or not, that was a big part of the appeal for me that it was so overwhelming. I thought I would never understand this world and all the things that were going on in her, and that was very appealing to me. I was right too – I wrote the X-Men and I’m still surprised at parts of their story. ”
“But,” he wondered, “does this kind of expansive universe work in a movie or TV show?” I am not sure if it is so. As much as (Avengers: Endgame) can make a really funny story with 47 characters that also springs from 50 hours of movies? It seems like the more you can put together a core cast, the better. ( .) As with anything else, I think it depends on how much effort you are willing to make and how much you can use to get involved. I think that if you really want to go all in, you have to do it in a sequential medium that offers room for extensions. So: TV. “
Jenkins was a bit more realistic and said, “Since X-Men comics are series, sequential stories that will never really end, it’s easier to put them into a TV show.” That said, we just have an idea of what an X-Men TV show would look like with The Gifted, and honestly, I do not see a budget that gives people what they want. ( .) The X-Men are already a huge movie franchise, the sixth top recording of all time. It would be stupid to do anything other than get her back into movies. The worst case is that you get a movie that only earns as much money as Spider-Man. “
Wheeler felt similar and said, “Marvel’s schedule is pretty busy on both streams until 2023, so if you’re hoping that mutants will be introduced soon, you better hope that they first appear in other stories.” I do not think that this is an option. X-Men movies could be supported by shows like New Mutants or X-Factor. ”
Stuart Immonen, Wade by Grawbadger, Marvel Comics
Fox’s X-Men film series held Professor X, Magneto, and Wolverine in the thick of the action, and it was important to get other prominent and beloved characters off the hook. Wheeler immediately interjected what he considered a failure of the Fox films.
“I’ve always had the feeling that the films distract the women in absurdity,” he said to Polygon. “The X-Men have the largest number of female heroes in comics, but the films never blamed characters like Storm, Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee, Emma, or Psylocke, and never tapped characters like Illyana, Dazzler, Monet, or Dani. It’s not the X-Men for me, if the women are not in the front and center. “
Thompson felt the same way. “I do not want to dismiss Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Wolverine and their significance for the X-Myth,” she said, “but we literally had two decades when these men were the wheel on which all the X-Men films were filmed Stories are spinning and I am very ready for something wild new. Something (and some) that feels young and fresh and the future likes.
“I do not mind seeing the classic characters,” she continued, “and like any die-hard fan, it’s exciting to see new shots of these characters, but I admit I’m more focused on it, all the unbelievable cool to see stuff / characters that we have not seen before, instead of seeing new settings for what has already been seen. I want to see a teen Laura Wolverine. I want to see armor and magic. I want Storm to tell a real story. She is so fascinating and was so underserved in the movies. Obviously, I would love to see rogue and gambit on the screen together – flirt and fight as they should be. ”
Jenkins agreed, but was more pragmatic. “As much as some people want to avoid it, Wolverine is absolutely essential to the X-Men from the mainstream point of view. Man sold, “he said.
“In addition, I do not think anyone really matters, but it’s more interesting to me who is insignificant, and that’s Professor X and Magneto. Since the Silver Age, comic writers have been trying to find ways to get Xavier out of the comics In addition, Magneto was a vicious force in every X-Men movie, so a great way to highlight these films is to force other characters into those central roles. “
Sims and Bunn had generation-specific answers. Wolverine is the obvious answer, but there’s a reason why Wolverine is the obvious answer, here’s my hot attitude: actually, Wolverine rules.
“For me, the essential X-Men are the ones I grew up with (big surprise). This is also the team that Chad Bowers and I wrote (with Scott Koblish, Alti Firmansyah, Cory Hamscher, Matt Milla and Travis Lanham) in X-Men ’92: Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, maybe Scott and Jean and of course the best X-Man, Jubilee. As much as I love the classic Claremont / Byrne / Cockrum “All New X-Men” lineup, these are my boys.
Bunn was in favor of what he called a “giant-size” roster (a reference to the team formed in “Giant-Size X-Men # 1”, which includes Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, etc A few additions or some characters could be exchanged, but this is a diverse, exciting team that could immediately thrill the audience. And it contains so many characters that are a must for so many fans. “
20th Century Fox
Given the MCU’s many years of experience with the title and basic story of a recent comic event and nothing else, I asked which famous X-story this treatment should receive. Bunn emphatically emphasized what he did not want to see: “There are many stories that could work, but I hope they stay away from the story of the Dark Phoenix for a while.” As much as I love this story, I think we need to rest it cinematically. “
Wheeler said we should return to the beginning. “Many of the recent X-Men stories are based on a story that has not been established in the MCU,” he said. “I think X-Men movies have to go back to the beginning. There is much to tell about the genesis of mutants in the MCU. “
Thompson took another stroke and said, “I think that (Joss) Whedon & (artist John) Cassadays Astonishing and (Grant) Morrison and (artist Frank) Quitely’s New X-Men are both fascinating stories and parts of each as TV or Movie could work. But again, I tend to see things like . a super-weird Excalibur movie that’s an action, a comedy, or some kind of mutated detective bureau, as we saw in X-Factor. “
Sims and Jenkins have become much newer. “It’s hard to imagine a movie called X-Men: Here Comes Tomorrow, right?” Sims asked (referring to the alternative future story that ended Morrison’s New X-Men tenure).
Jenkins also remembered the Morrison / Quitely era: “I think the best you can do is keep the size of the X-Men small. Focus on the school and the internal conflicts of the mutant culture. That would lead me to . Riot At Xavier. This is a concise story that reconciles Xavier’s legacy with Magneto’s legacy. It would be a good, almost meta-like way to target the X-Men who move into the MCU. “
Jim Lee / Marvel Comics
I could not resist asking, given the polarizing nature of Avenger’s Endgame’s time travel to the MCU, and the long, complicated history of the X-Men, that time travel should be part of the MCU. Verse goes forward.
Wheeler commented negatively, saying, “X-Men Times Travel stories are about putting the ongoing battles of a minority in a historical context. They are more meaningful to me than space stories, but I still do not like them very much! I think that traveling in time in a common universe brings with it a degree of complexity that tends to break the world. “
Sims agreed. He said, “For the X-Men, believe it or not, I do not really like time travel stories. ( .) Days of Future Past is a great comic, but the main effect should be to show us the future. We avoid making time travel a core element of the team. ( .) Time travel is hard to master in the best of times, and I love that Endgame basically treated it as something that made no sense and was to be thrown in with a mostly carefree tone. ( .) But I’m also the guy who thinks that the fight against Dracula should be a core element of the team because I read that story when I was a kid, like Salt Grain and so on. “
Jenkins also agreed that time travel should be avoided: “I think the heavy sci-fi elements in comics can work well, but in the movie you want the X-Men to play a clearer role. Elements like the journey through time make the mutants’ central hook muddy and should not be used in their cinematic adventures. “
Thompson was a bit more democratic: “I like it or hate it, time travel is a staple for science fiction and always manages to work its way into superhero stories. But hopefully it will take a while for us to fall into this trap. “
Bunn spoke of another possibility and said, “I’m not sure time travel is necessary, it’s more likely that something is involved with the multiverse / alternative reality, maybe the Heavenly ones, because time travel is such a big part of Endgame “I would think that they want to leave that on the shelf for a while.”
In his absurdly awarded “Road to Endgame” series for Slashfilm, Siddhat Adlakha reckoned that the MCU’s superhero stories have strengthened American militarism aesthetically and lyrically. Instead, Marvel films tend to tacitly support things, such as a man being able to control killer drones over sunglasses.
In their own long history, the X-Men have gone from saving an army base on their first appearance to citing Sims’ government-contracted “giant purple robot of racism.” With that in mind, I asked my experts if they agreed with Adlakha’s takeover of militarism in superhero films and determined if the X-Men (with the exception of characters attached to the military, such as Wolverine & Deadpool or Technopath / Vietnam Vet Forge) can compensate this circle.
Bunn offered a little roadmap and said, “Almost all superhero films tend to rely a little more on military aesthetics. So far it has been a big part of everything that seemed much more realistic. But over time, more and more movies have gone into crazy and (less realistic) areas. I think we could see an approach to X-Men that could, to a certain extent, bring them into conflict with the military mood. “
Marvel Studios / Paramount Pictures
Jenkins felt similar despite disagreeing with Adlakhas’ core thesis: “I think it’s fair to say that military and tactical elements are used as set dressing from the MCU films, but I think that’s the character (s) Explicitly rejecting this structure in the film, it begins with Iron Man, a film that destroys the military industrial complex, and films like The Winter Soldier and Captain Marvel continue to attack the system, the X-Men being the ultimate rebels, outsiders, I do not think so that the X-Men can compete with a military concept because they are the opposite of that concept and that makes them a great addition to the MCU. ”
On the other hand, Sims was a bit more defensive of militarism and said, “I find it interesting to note that the X-Men have been an extra-governmental paramilitary strike group since day one.” The least-notorious reading of the team is that it is a However, most charitable readings have yet to acknowledge that Xavier has given out a few 15-year-old codenames and uniforms and sent them out to stop Magneto from stealing nuclear weapons from a military base in their FIRST MISSION ,
“They’ve always been militaristic,” Sims went on, “and I think that’s why they’re attracting militarily adjacent characters like Wolverine – there’s an inherent hierarchy and power structure that mirrors the military in almost every aspect, right down to that dedication an abstract thing that requires them to use force to defend higher ideals, but we just do not think so because the “uniforms” went out the window in the late 1960s and because these brawls fought against huge purple robots out of racism Still, you can not look at Cyclops and tell me that the guy is in no way a career soldier, except in the place where he issues his paycheck. “
Wheeler said the question should be bypassed so that the new X series focuses on another. “The tension of the X-Men has always been between those who see mutant forces as a threat and those who believe they are an identity.” The first question the X-Men are looking at externally focuses on militarism. I’d like to see on-screen (and side-by-side) X-Men stories that look at X-Men from the perspective of marginalized people and focus on identity issues. “
Thompson agreed, although she agreed with Adlakha, “I think it’s natural for superheroes to fall into this mode, first of all, it’s a really juicy and obvious idea that the military literally gets hold of super-soldiers and controls all aspects of it The government would quickly see the pros and cons of a motorized population, and even if you exclude the government, every team that works together has a kind of vague militaristic hierarchy . otherwise there is chaos.
“But I think it’s about exploring the other genres of superheroes where you can really get rid of them,” she continued, “what a mutated high school story looks like . a mutated horror story . like a mutated cast of a detective noir, looks like . what an extended comedy or space adventure looks like . an adventure story that blends into a romantic comedy (> cough< Rogue & Gambit >Cough <) looks like. There are so many options and they are less likely to fall into traditional militarist superhero tropes. "
Finally, I asked my expert team who they would reach to write or direct an X-movie when Kevin Feige asked them. It was Thompson who had the widest net. She said, “I would tell him that I have a great pitch to prepare for gambit and rogue when he’s ready to call me, directors? Phoebe Waller Bridge, Michael Schur, Greta Gerwig, David Fincher, Barry Jenkins, George Miller, Leslye Headland, Denis Villeneuve, Mindy Kaling, Donald Glover, Wong Kar Wai, Issa Rae, and it’s just tangential to the X-Men, but I’ll definitely need a Taika Waititi Nextwave movie right away “
Jenkins had only one tip in mind: “I’m terrible with things like that, but I want the X-Men to be stylish and smart, so I’ll tap Alex Garland, Dredd and 28 Days Later show how he can write action Ex Machina and Annihilation show how he can direct tension, I do not know what it would look like, but it should be interesting. “
Bunn and Sims had more ambitions for this fluffy question. Bunn (no stranger to comics like Harrow County) said, “How about the Duffer Brothers? You could do an amazing job with the mutants. Or James Wan. Or Guillermo del Toro, because I do not care what he conducts. I think David Cronenberg could also give us a really messed-up version of the X-Men, and I’m all in favor. “
Sims, a self-confessed Dracula guy, had a silly idea, “They should fight Dracula. In fact, it should literally be a remake of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with Keanu as Cyclops and Winona Ryder as Jean Gray. I’m joking most of the time, but I’m trying to say that’s not the case. “
However, Wheeler had the most ambitious idea: “Ask Dee Rees to make a Storm movie. Invite Justin Simien to shoot an Iceman movie. Jill Soloway’s Kitty Pryde. Xavier Dolans North Star Tom Ford’s White Queen. Kimberly Peirce’s rogue. The actual X-Men movie can wait. I want the focus to be first on the characters and their own stories. “
After consulting the experts, it is difficult to argue with the statements of the experts. The X-Men were suspiciously absent from the list of previously announced new Disney Plus projects. But one thing I know for sure: Whatever the X-Men look like in the MCU, it can not get any worse than The Last Stand.