As I wrote about earlier today for BSO, Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier, who has been named director for the upcoming untitled X-Men film, announced that work on the film had begun. He wouldn’t elaborate much more than that, but he did say that the source material for the X-Men is “inherently interesting and complex material,” and they want to tap into the well of complexity. The director stopped short of saying what that meant, but Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige said the film would be “youth-focused” and that would “be felt in the tone and perspective of the film.”
Fans will be elated that work has begun on the X-Men, but there’s also been a ton of speculation about the path Marvel will take in telling their story. There are a couple of approaches they could take, and I want to explore three of them. One of them is something that isn’t very likely at all, but it’s something that I would want to see them explore in great detail. The other two will be based on what we already know and expect based on Feige and Schreier’s comments.
A Young Unformed Team
Let’s first explore the idea of Marvel Studios employing a concept similar to X-Men: First Class, where we see a much younger and unformed team, still needing to be found and assembled. This is the direction the team seems to be going, and would likely feature Charles Xavier locating and training the first batch of mutants at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Marvel likes to be traditional with their big teams, so it will be interesting to see which group of X-Men they assemble, but I think it’s safe to say that Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey will be among them.
This version likely wouldn’t have Magneto as the main villain because Marvel likes to stretch out the payoff for those things. Examples of this are them waiting until Avengers: Endgame to allow Captain America to say “Avengers Assemble!” The recent Fantastic Four: First Steps film didn’t even let the audience see Dr. Doom at all, outside of a Doom-like figure kneeling on the ground next to Franklin Richards, who had his mask in his hand, in a post-credit scene for the film. The Green Goblin didn’t even appear in the new Spider-Man trilogy until the very last film. Pitting the X-Men against Magneto in their very first film is a great way to kick off your newly rebooted Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it also takes their most notable villain and reduces him and his motives to whatever you can cram into that first film.
You want a character like Magneto to have space to breathe within the story. This only happens if he has the time to have that space. It’s also easier to cast Magneto as a sympathetic villain, similar to Thanos, over the course of a few films. If the audience goes on the journey with Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, seeing his time in a concentration camp or watching him lose his family to hate and fear, it becomes easier to understand why he doesn’t trust humans. It also gives others a reason to join him. Trying to fit that all in one movie is going to be impossible, especially if you want to avoid doing a film people have already done.
A Younger Assembled Team Experiencing Their First Loss
Another path they could take is to have the team already formed, similar to how the bulk of the X-Men were already defending humanity when Wolverine and Rogue joined their ranks. This is a type of story that could hew closer to the comic origin of the X-Men. Perhaps they go with a mix of the Lee and Kirby run with the Len Wein and Dave Cockrum run, like using the 60s cast with the second team’s experience losing John Proudstar in battle.
For the uninitiated, Marvel’s first attempt at the X-Men went extremely poorly. While Stan Lee and Jack Kirby set the stage for the characters, it wasn’t until Len Wein came along that the X-Men became the hit they are today. Complimenting Wein’s writing was the incredible and memorable art of Dave Cockrum. It was under this run that Wein and Cockrum established both the look and team composition of the X-Men, at least until Jim Lee took over the X-Men in the 90s and turned them into a household name.
They could use flashbacks of Professor X recruiting the team, similar to Wein’s Giant Size X-Men #1, which opened with Xavier recruiting a new team to rescue the original Kirby and Lee team from the island of Krakoa. Going this route would enable the writers to follow up on this story with the more modern Jonanthan Hickman run on Powers of X and House of X, where Krakoa becomes both a nation-state and pharmaceutical power in the Krakoan Age. Think of this as something similar to how Spider-Man: Homecoming functioned. The story would open in medias res, in other words, the story would open already in progress and we would backfill the narrative with flashbacks and exposition.
My Idea for the X-Men
If I were give complete control over the X-Men, I would operate the first phase of the Mutant Saga similar to how Marvel handled Phase One of the MCU. Each character or sets of characters would feature in their own story, with seeds leading them finally forming a team in an X-Men film. Just like how Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man had their own stories that would eventually set the stage for future conflicts and events, the X-Men characters have backgrounds that are extremely rich in lore and hardship.
I would have individual film for Wolverine. I would do a music-themed film with Dazzler. There should be a film focusing on Rogue and Gambit, and then another film focusing on Jean Grey and Cyclops. You can pad those films out by having characters like Colossus, Magik, Nightcrawler, and Beast also appearing as minor characters who will eventually join the main roster. Doing an X-Men film right off the rip takes the biggest carrot Marvel has in their possession and doesn’t even bother with the stick. Marvel should delay satisfaction as a way to build a stronger narrative and strong desire by fans to finally seem them all under Xavier’s tutelage.
There are numerous other X-Men or mutant-adjacent stories that they could tell to set this stage. I would lead off with God Loves, Man Kills, since it apes our currently reality and is one of the most thought provoking and powerful stories ever written. I’ve often used the X-Men as the perfect example of why comics are and always have been political, specifically using God Loves, Man Kills as the definitive example of this. There might be some things Marvel needs to down down, but it’s a fantastic story and a great way to kick things off.
I will have more ideas for you down the line. I just wanted to kick things off with a small sampling of ideas that Disney could use for their upcoming Mutant Saga. What about you? Do you have any particular stories that you’d like to see Marvel Studios adapt? Do you think they should slow play the X-Men or rip the bandaid right off? Let us know what you think in the comments, and we’ll see you next time for some Marvel chatter.
