How would you approach an X-Men reboot in the MCU?

[Dasher10]

Magneto would be keeping himself alive through his powers. That's how he's still alive but he's wearing out and has sought the help of Moira MacTaggart to restore his youth as his powers have begun to fail him and he's begun aging. Magneto's ultimately a survivor who after surviving the Holocaust, is afraid of only two things: death and persecution.

The roster would consist of Xavier, Cyclops, Havok, Iceman, Phoenix, Polaris, Archangel and Beast. Magneto would place Polaris on the team as she is his daughter and he's an old friend of Xavier's. Xavier would have adopted Cyclops and Havok. The X-Men are formed as Cyclops' powers deem him, "too dangerous" for the Avengers due to his inability to control them, prompting Xavier to seek out people with extraordinary powers and build a superhero team of his own.

The plot would be based on Proteus. He should be an incredibly sympathetic character while Moira would be a complex and flawed figure who wants to cure her son of his reality warping powers and keeps him from joining Xavier's school where he may have learned to control his mutant powers.

Proteus escapes Miur Island and sets his sights on vengeance upon a world which kept in imprisoned in a lab by his own mother like an animal. He blames his treatment on his abusive father and believes that if he treated his mother better, she would have accepted him as a child. He then lashes out at everyone in his way on a massive killing spree.

The fact that Magneto's own daughter was the one to kill Proteus who Magneto views as the real victim drives him over the edge. The media's coverage of mutants as dangerous people with the capacity for mass murder makes him believe that mutants must withdraw from humanity and protect themselves while Xavier believes that it's possible to win the public over to accept mutants. Magneto's guilt over regaining his power by somebody who hated mutants so much she deprived her son of a normal life drive him to go into hiding so that mutants may form their own nation and defend their kind against any who would dare threaten them. Xavier on the other hand, relocates from Muir Island to upstate New York.

The sequel would adapt Second Genesis where Magneto has established Krakoa as a haven for mutants and formed the Brotherhood as its army (Mystique, Blob, Destiny, Toad, Crimson Commando and Pyro as members). In response to the governments of the world treating Krakoa as a dangerous rogue state, the X-Men take it upon themselves to defuse the situation before it gets out of hand after Magneto sinks a Russian submarine. Then nothing but radio silence. Cyclops arrives back at the X-Mansion as the only survivor. Xavier assembles a new team composed of Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird and young teenager Colossus. Thunderbird dies when it's revealed the Krakoa is alive. Havok and Beast leave to join the Avengers. Iceman and Polaris both depart to leave normal lives with Polaris wanting to be a geologist and Iceman wanting to be an accountant. Magneto and the Brotherhood are now outlaws who have lost their home. They refuse to join Xavier who they view as a collaborator with a human supremacist society who will change nothing and peaceful coexistence to be submission.

Part 3 would introduce Rogue, Shadowcat and Psylocke to the team.

 

[DrCosmic]

It seems to be agreed upon here that you need the idea of mutants in Marvel because they are crucial to the identity of the X-Men. I disagree because mutants have always been a poor metaphor for minorities/homosexuals/oppressedflavoroftheweek.

Whenever this theme has showed up in the films or comics, it has always felt forced and out-of-place. Here are a few reasons why:

1) The mutant population is not large enough that persecution of them would realistically be a social problem. The fact is that if Xavier can only find a few hundred students for his school from all around the globe, that means most people aren't going to come across mutants in their day-to-day lives. If they never see mutants, they simply will not care about them. People carrying billboards saying "God hates mutants!" would be viewed as fanatics and largely ignored.

2) In certain times and universes where the mutant population IS large enough to cause a social problem, the idea of superpowers stops being interesting. To quote The Incredibles
Mrs. Incredible: "Everyone's special, Dash."
Dash: "Which is just another way of saying no one is."

3) Mutants have no obvious unifying traits, so it would be impossible to stereotype them. Nobody goes around making fun of people with Type-AB blood...all these mutants have in common is a gene. Some have extra arms, some don't. Some can make things explode, some can't. Some look totally normal. How do you even talk about them as a single group, much less oppress them?

4) Teenagers randomly and suddenly having superhuman powers is a legitimate safety concern, unlike homosexuality or differences in physical appearance due to ethnicity. When Scott Summers goes from A-student to blowing a hole in the wall just by looking at it, I get why the parents are frightened and try to find solutions.

5) If the average human loves The Fantastic Four and The Avengers, why would they hate mutants? To the average human, these are all just people with superpowers...would they really care how they got those powers?

6) Exceptional gifts are usually celebrated in society, not shamed and persecuted. There were no mobs out to kill great minds like Einstein or Beethoven. None of the parents wanted to kill the dunker on your high school basketball team because he was "too tall." What's wrong with the people in Marvel that they hate mutants so much?

That's just a few reasons off the top of my head, and I could probably come up with many more with more time. In my opinion, the X-Men have always failed to be a metaphor for oppressed groups, so I don't believe that metaphor is worth trying to preserve in the MCU.

Mutants are also not necessary to the X-Men from a narrative angle. Xavier could run a fake boarding school for teenagers who get superpowers for whatever reason...it doesn't have to be that they are mutants and therefore inexplicably hated by everyone (including their family.) Magneto could be someone who believes superhumans should stay away from normal people for their own safety, but then seek to rule over them, while Xavier could help people with superpowers finds ways to use their gifts to work WITH normal people. They don't have to be mutants to have these conflicts.

7) Stan Lee literally only came up with the idea of mutants because he was too lazy to keep writing origin stories. "I couldn't have everybody bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to a gamma ray explosion. And I took the cowardly way out. I said to myself, 'Why don't I just say they're mutants. They were born that way'."

It wasn't to make some statement about society, and it has never worked when later authors have tried to use them that way, partly for the other six reasons I have already listed. You don't need mutants to have the X-Men.

It only feels forced and out of place for people who don't understand oppression.

1) The gay population is a pretty small group, as are girls who have abortions, as are Arab-Americans, as are supposedly Kenyan-Muslim-Socialist American Presidents but we make a huge deal out of it and people carry around plaques and lots of people care. The idea that population size is a necessary factor for a social issue isn't true in real life.

2) Equating "a large population" with "everyone" is a misunderstanding of the word "everyone."

3) Obvious unifying traits are not necessary for oppression either. Again, queerness is a great example. It is not obvious who is queer, I'm not even sure why you argued that with Question. But we still care quite a bit. It's not obvious whose an immigrant, either, but that's a big issue.

4) Again, so is illegal immigration, and abortion, and inner city crime. But when prejudice is involved, it becomes an issue, because people don't deal with the legitimate safety issue, they deal with their fear of what might happen, thus creating conflict.

5) You JUST gave a perfect example of how mutants provide a legitimate safety issue. Now you're saying an average person wouldn't see a difference. This is the kind of doublespeak that happens when you're blind to bigotry and prejudice.

6) Some exceptional gifts are sometimes celebrated, yes, but the moment these exceptional people make mistakes, we love to tear them down. And we don't celebrate exceptional gifts from groups of people that we oppress. And again, you JUST gave an example of why parents would have a problem with mutants, and then turn around and wonder why they're scared of the type of person that just vaporized their school wall.

7)And Stan Lee's version failed, tanked, got cancelled, did dozens of issues as re-prints. It wasn't until a diverse cast of X-Men started handling the persecution issues that X-Men became popular. If it had not embraced the reality of prejudice through metaphor, as all good sci-fi does, we wouldn't even know it existed. Also, this is not a reason why it's forced. Just because something is added by a subsequent writer doesn't mean it's forced, or else, well, every superhero would be identical to their first appearance in personality, abilities and appearance. Exactly.

Basically, the oppressed groups are all in agreement that mutants are a great metaphor for their ills. If you disagree, well... I'm glad that you have that privilege, but your explanation, is full of contradictions where you point out why people would be afraid of mutants and then ask why they would be. It is the explanations about why mutants that would not be oppressed that are forced. I think it's because people don't want to see just how horrific and oppressive our society can be, as though the Western world does things that make sense and recognize exceptional Muslims, or don't have a problem with homosexuality until there's a certain size, or are always justified in how we react to crime - a legitimate concern. Scary... sad... tragic... and an incredible refusal to get the clear message that has drawn so many oppressed people to the X-Men comics.

 

[DrCosmic]

So how would I handle it?

I'd have something really bad happen with a mutant manifestation, maybe a new mutant tragedy every month/week/day, and basically create this culture/feeling of out of control teenagers with Avengers-level powers that can't be regulated. That would be the 'legitimate concern' that the OP says exists, and I agree. I would then have instigators like Henry Peter Gyrich, Senator Kelly and Reverend Stryker overreact, calling for blood, control, and generally playing up the fears of the people to create a mutant paranoia. Basically saying mutation involves evil intentions and anarchy. I'd build this in the background of a couple movies leading up to things. It'd be Civil War, but worse, something that can't be controlled. There'd be debates and there'd always be new kids trying to figure things out, and screwing up badly. And then the persecution would go from paranoid militants to government intervention, run by those same paranoid militants. The people would be constantly fed videos of mutant carnage, told stories of psionic slaves, shown images of the most grotesque mutants, and warned that their kids could be one too. Not because Gyrich/Stryker/Kelly are "evil" but because there's real money in the mutant prisons and control programs, and if they don't create that paranoia, they'd never get billions of dollars for their Sentinel Programs and the like. Stryker would become a huuuge preacher because of his mutant apocalypse message. Gyrich would be a big man in the government because only he knew how to handle this mutant problem. Basically, the Friends of Humanity would create the mutant paranoia, and escalate the issue. From there, the mutants would fight back, proving that they are indeed dangerous and destructive, and well, everything goes on its own from there.

There would be exceptions of course. When Beast joins the Avengers he'd be considered "One of the good mutants." And mutants would be called not to use their powers unless they are trained by the Avengers or the Government, though of course some can't control it, so they are deemed evil in the media, and 'making excuses.' There would be people who disagree, and there'd be a big national debate, but policy would be on the conservative side, and there'd be incidents where mutant supporters were shown to have gotten hurt or worse. Magneto steps in to fill the role of caretaker for these poor mutant youth as he creates "The Brotherhood of Mutants" to pull all these distressed disparate children together, and Xavier would be trying to navigate the minefield and it'd be very much Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

While killing off Magneto in the current continuity is a good idea, if I were starting a new continuity, I'd have Magneto come out of present day Israel, be ex-Mossad and have seen his family killed in that conflict, rather than in world war II. Same with Xavier, if they're dealing with kids who are manifesting in 2015 (kids born post-Y2K, basically), then I'd have them in their late thirties as opposed to late eighties. I'd also run it to reflect that puberty starts (and ends?) much earlier today than it did in 1960 when X-Men was first published.

So for me, I'd almost do it like a Harry Potter, where we see these kids grow up as Magneto, Xavier, Moira, Stryker, Gyrich, Kelly, Exodus, Sinister, Destiny and these other older "first gen" mutants become less relevant. That'd be different, and cool, at least for me.

 

[AgentGojiraRgr]

I kinda like the concept of Inhumans more than Mutants.

Maybe just have the X-Men be Inhumans?

 

[Tg11]

As far as an X-Men reboot in the Marvel Disney Cinematic Universe, you can build it up similar to the 2000 movie adaptation of X-Men but with a few differences like for example building it up so that we see the origins of each mutant play out on screen like Magneto in WWII and then Xavier discovering his powers and then eventually the 2 of them meeting each other and then becoming friends as well as recruiting other mutants to go up against a big bad, similar to X-Men First Class and then seeing Magneto and Xavier torn apart eventually becoming enemies but then taking us to recent day and going from there

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

First things first, it would not be part of the larger MCU. It would instead be a second universe developed my Marvel/Disney and run concurrently to it. A parallel dimension of sorts.

I would take many queues from Fox's X-Men, but it would be a TV show. Then we could quit with all the spiritual remakes (Heroes, Powers, etc.) and get the real thing on the air. Somewhere between 12 and 18 episodes per season.

The major queue I'd take from Fox is that it would be a period piece. Or rather, a series of period pieces spanning most of the century, 1940s - 2020s and beyond.

Season 1

Spoiler

would take place in the 80s and focus on Magneto attempting a hail mary play to wipe out humanity with nuclear weapons. The core cast would consist of:
Charles Xavier (40)
Scott Summers (20)
Jean Grey (20)
Hank McCoy (30)
Warren Worthington III (20) killed off toward the end of the season.
the newcomer, Bobby Drake (15)
The radical Magneto
Quicksilver
Scarlet Witch

Season 2

Spoiler

would be 3-4 years later and draw largely from Giant Size, beginning to focus on public dissent and prejudice. A large continuing plot would involve rescuing the original team from captivity. Core cast now includes:
Xavier
Scott Summers (24)
Ororo Monroe(30)
Kurt Wagner (25)
Piotr Rasputin (20)
Logan (recurring, but not yet series regular)
Moira Mactaggart
Magneto (imprisoned. recurring, not regular)
Bolivar Trask (creating and selling weaponry designed to target x-gene)
Senator Kelley

Season 3

Spoiler

would be set shortly thereafter, pitting Mystique's brotherhood against the team as she plots to release Magneto. Hank has left the team to pursue a more peaceful approach.The cast now includes:
Xavier
Scott
Jean (beginning to lose control of her powers)
Ororo
Kurt
Piotr
Bobby
Logan (more regular)
Mystique
Pyro
Blob
Toad
Quicksilver
Scarlet Witch
Magneto (released at the series finale)

Then several more seasons including Phoenix Saga (late 80s), Rise of the Sentinels (early 90s), Age of Apocalypse (mid-90s), etc. With plenty of flashbacks in the midst (Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine, Apocalypse, etc.) The x-gene would be described to have slight age-slowing properties across the board. Wolverine's is obviously heightened. It would continue in this fashion for probably 10-12 seasons.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

I think the only way to integrate the X-Men property into the rest of the MCU is to tackle it head on and just do it. Don't over think the fact that people would hate mutants but love Captain America. In fact make that aspect part of the mythos.

Maybe SHIELD had the original X-Men (Cyclops, Jean, Angel, Iceman and Beast) and Xavier working for them as a secret strike force to police the few mutant threats out there (a mix of classic Lee/Kirby and Ultimate X-Men) and help keep the existence of mutants a secret from the rest of the world. The program ended badly and the team went their separate ways and try as much as possible to stay under the radar and live normal lives. Mutants have always been in the MCU but we've just haven't known about it thanks to SHIELD.

Fast forward to present day and reports of mutants appearing are happening all the time. Incidents are occurring. Mutants are not a secret anymore because too many are popping up and SHEILD isn't a big enough presence anymore to keep it a secret thanks to what happened in Winter Soldier, as it's still rebuilding itself. Mutants are becoming known to the world and becoming an issue.

This causes Magneto to come out of hiding and make his presence known. Because of his tragic past he sees the rest of the world as a threat to mutants. This extends to the world governments, a rebuilding SHIELD, and superhero teams like the Avengers who Magneto thinks are either controlled by rich *******s like Tony Stark or misguided patriots like Captain America. But either way they are not mutants just because they have powers or advanced tech so in Magneto's eyes they don't understand the mutant struggle, and they involve themselves in world affairs that don't concern them without being asked, so Magneto considers them a possible threat to mutants anyway. He is also resentful of the fact that people hate mutants but yet love Captain America or Spider-Man. The hypocrisy of it pisses him off even more. In short, he quickly becomes a mutant terrorist and has his Brotherhood of Mutants group to further his agenda.

Xavier is the opposite. He sees the mutants coming out into the world and becoming known, and he wants to reform the X-Men because of it. Not only that but he wants it to be inspired by the heroism of superhero teams like the Avengers. He thinks it's the responsibility of mutants to be positive role models and represent their kind for the better, as that is the only way mutants will ever be accepted by the rest of the world, which sticks with the core concept of the X-Men in that it "protects those that hate and fear them" and retains the MLK vs. Malcolm X dynamic of the X-Men vs. mutants like Magneto and the Brotherhood.

So Xavier brings Scott and Jean back into the fold to lead a new X-Men team featuring Storm, Nightcawler, Colossus, and Wolverine, as they get recruited by Xavier (ala Giant Sized #1). This X-Men team will be a superhero team inspired by the Avengers and not a government controlled program, although it won't be completely public like Tony Stark is at first. You start with this concept and build from there.

 

[Random490]

Before Days of Future Past was announced I had the idea of that movie being a transition movie in the MCU. Basically pulling a Star Trek to get a new cast to take over. As I recall the first X-men movie states that it takes place "In the near future" I would have used that to make the present day X-men be with a younger cast who can stay with the franchise as it integrates with the MCU. But with how Days of Future Past is going and how Apocalypse is turning out I can pretty much toss those plans out. So now I'd suggest a complete reboot.

The Premise:
Mutants have been around for centuries however their numbers have been few, but recent decades their numbers have been growing exponentially. Every Human has an X-gene and it is usually not active. No one knows how or why it becomes active. There are those that know the truth, most are either considered crackpots, theorist, or have chosen to remain secret. But that's about to change.

Some Mutants don't have dangerous or noticeable powers, nor any physical abnormalities. They go on to lead normal lives. Those that don't have either been in hiding, seen as isolated genetic anomalies by SHIELD and governments, or have been recruited by The Brotherhood or by Xavier.

The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning:
A boarding school for mutants, either a safe nurturing environment to learn and grow for people who have physical anomalies relating to their mutant traits. And for others with powers so that they may learn to control it, so they are not a danger to themselves or others. The school has been around for let's say 10-20 years, currently has 70 students and 30 faculty. Not all of whom are mutants. A few are family and friends of mutants who have volunteered their time, or have enrolled to help their loved ones to adjust. The school was founded by Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, and Hank McCoy, who together learned to understand the X-gene and wished to help others like themselves.

The X-Men:
The X-Men is a team trained to deal with potentially hostile or dangerous mutants, to save them or others from harm and offer them a place at the institute. They don't start with uniforms but with basic combat clothing for training and certain missions. The leader is Cyclops who can be considered the main character, the narrative will follow him. He deeply believes in Xavier's dream, but also feels that mutants can do more for the world. However, Xavier stresses the importance of secrecy to their safety.

The Brotherhood:
Erik Lehnsherr shared Xavier's dream but the two had a falling out over what their roles should be. Erik believed that eventually once the world knows of their existence the world will turn on them and they should be ready for it. Erik left the school, goes by Magneto, and formed the Brotherhood of Mutants, whose goal is to defend mutants around the world. There has been a truce and mutual understanding between the two to stay secret.

The Plot:
The story begins with the X-Men recruiting a new mutant while successfully avoiding the media (which with the rise of cell phone videos is becoming more difficult). We get introduce the school and characters. On their next recruiting assignment the meet a particularly nasty mutant by the name of Wolverine, who has been laying low when suddenly they are attacked by military forces. The Team and Wolverine successfully fight them off and escape back to the school. There Wolverine tells them the he was experimented on, given metal bones, made to be a weapon, force to do missions, and has lost his memory of his prior life.

At this time Magneto has a similar experience finding Saber-tooth and learns the horrifying truth to Weapon X, a black ops multi-governmental organization that experiments on mutants. Enraged, The brotherhood attack the Weapon X facilities killing most of the security and kidnapping the scientist. Knowing now that his fears are true he decides to make a statement. He releases quite a bit of Weapon X's files to the internet then livestream/live on tv executes the hostages. His final words before the transmission is cut is "This is only the beginning" The Brotherhood then starts to attack other Weapon X and military facilities across the globe.

The world now knows of mutant's existence and are terrified at what the Brotherhood is capable of. Cyclops is convince the X-Men need to stop them, but Xavier is reluctant, he doesn't want to risk their lives, most of the team agrees. Even Wolverine wants to give Magneto a hug for taking out Weapon X. World leaders and representatives gather at a summit to discuss the mutant threat and of course the Brotherhood attacks it, taking all the representatives hostage. They're no longer just attacking military targets, the summit is located in a highly populated city and there is a lot of collateral damage. Seeing the results on the news, Cyclops decides enough is enough and resolves to go it alone, but the rest of the X-Men join him, even Wolverine. They put on new black and yellow uniforms and head out.

The team manages to sneak into the summit but are confronted by the Brotherhood, working together they manage to win and eventually come face to face with Magneto. Cyclops tries to reason with him and they debate each other but of course ends with a fight, all the X-men vs Magneto. The fight breaks out into the streets and Cyclops manages to save a news crew. Working as a team the X-Men stops Magneto. After the battle the news crew runs up to Cyclops and asks him a bunch of questions. The team gives him unsteady looks, Wolverine just nods. Cyclops looks in the camera and says, "My name is Cyclops, I am a mutant, and we are the X-Men"

A news program goes on to talk about the concern over mutants and the public's approval of the X-men. Cyclops apologizes to Xavier who disregards it. Because he is proud of Cyclops, the school was made so they can be safe and he simply never wanted to put any of them in harm's way. But is proud he stepped up. The film ends with the entire team (plus some new recruits) training in the danger room. Ending with a group shot mid-action

Characters:
Cyclops is the main character, I really like him a feel like he gets short changed a lot in the films and I always saw him as the Captain America of the team. Plus Wolverine's been the main character way too much. I would cast somewhat younger for most of the characters, so you can have actors who can grow with the franchise. Cyclops would be early twenties.

Jean Grey, a sub plot would be the romance between her and Cyclops and NO love triangle with Wolverine, I hate love triangles.

Other members of the X-men team would be Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Iceman (who may be the mutant recruited at the beginning of the film)

Magneto, I read quite a bit here about how young should you cast Magneto given that the greatest generation is getting a bit too old for action heroes. For this reboot I'd personally like to keep it young, which unfortunately would mean letting go of the holocaust back story. But I feel that all of the past X-men movies have done such a great job telling it that I would have no intention of retelling it. I don't even plan on going into his back story at all, plus you don't necessarily need it to give him that motivation.

Wolverine, one thing I would like to mention is that I would love to see him with the mask, so my idea is for him to mention that he's made a lot of enemies and decides to wear it to keep them from going after the X-men. I'm tired of the wife beater shirt, I want the mask already!

Uniforms:
I picture the uniforms all being black and yellow with different designs for each individual. Unlike the Avengers which is a group of separate heroes, the X-men were formed as a team and I think their costumes should relfect it. I'm thinking that Cyclops mentions to a student, who does tailoring, to make him an iconic uniform and the student proceeds to make a whole bunch for everyone. Maybe the mutant's power is that they can't sleep thus has a ton of time on their hands? The reason Cyclops wanted the uniform is to make the X-men appear more like heroes, like the Avengers.

Connection to the MCU:
As some have pointed out, the X-men always felt like they were separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe. While I'd kind like that to stay tonally the same, I do want it to be very much apart of the universe. I picture it being a Phase 4 film, so it's tough to say what the Avengers will be like then, but I picture them getting a few name drops. Perhaps in future films have the Avenger officially back the X-Men.

Another point is why would people persecute or be afraid of mutants when the Avengers are running around. The difference is that most of the super powered Avengers were created in extreme circumstances, chances of more Hulks showing up is rare. While just about anyone can become a mutant at any time, random people potentially given enormous power is a scary thought. And the idea that more and more popping up is even worse. Plus some people are idiots who will find a way to hate anything.

Sequel Idea:
After the first film the X-men have become quite popular using their gift to help people. Storm helps prevent drought, Jean Grey helps the police find missing persons, etc. As a result the population is very spread out over the opinions on mutant. There are people who love the X-men and what the can bring to society, and there are those incredibly worried about unregulated super powers. So there is a push to make the Mutant Registration Department, a law enforcement division solely dedicated to tracking, documenting, and detaining mutants. The MRD also employs the sentinel program, basically an iron man rip offs with sentinels of varied sizes, also some armored versions for a soldier to where. A sentinel is there to supplement an MRD team.

 

[Tg11]

Before Days of Future Past was announced I had the idea of that movie being a transition movie in the MCU. Basically pulling a Star Trek to get a new cast to take over. As I recall the first X-men movie states that it takes place "In the near future" I would have used that to make the present day X-men be with a younger cast who can stay with the franchise as it integrates with the MCU. But with how Days of Future Past is going and how Apocalypse is turning out I can pretty much toss those plans out. So now I'd suggest a complete reboot.

The Premise:
Mutants have been around for centuries however their numbers have been few, but recent decades their numbers have been growing exponentially. Every Human has an X-gene and it is usually not active. No one knows how or why it becomes active. There are those that know the truth, most are either considered crackpots, theorist, or have chosen to remain secret. But that's about to change.

Some Mutants don't have dangerous or noticeable powers, nor any physical abnormalities. They go on to lead normal lives. Those that don't have either been in hiding, seen as isolated genetic anomalies by SHIELD and governments, or have been recruited by The Brotherhood or by Xavier.

The Xavier Institute for Higher Learning:
A boarding school for mutants, either a safe nurturing environment to learn and grow for people who have physical anomalies relating to their mutant traits. And for others with powers so that they may learn to control it, so they are not a danger to themselves or others. The school has been around for let's say 10-20 years, currently has 70 students and 30 faculty. Not all of whom are mutants. A few are family and friends of mutants who have volunteered their time, or have enrolled to help their loved ones to adjust. The school was founded by Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, and Hank McCoy, who together learned to understand the X-gene and wished to help others like themselves.

The X-Men:
The X-Men is a team trained to deal with potentially hostile or dangerous mutants, to save them or others from harm and offer them a place at the institute. They don't start with uniforms but with basic combat clothing for training and certain missions. The leader is Cyclops who can be considered the main character, the narrative will follow him. He deeply believes in Xavier's dream, but also feels that mutants can do more for the world. However, Xavier stresses the importance of secrecy to their safety.

The Brotherhood:
Erik Lehnsherr shared Xavier's dream but the two had a falling out over what their roles should be. Erik believed that eventually once the world knows of their existence the world will turn on them and they should be ready for it. Erik left the school, goes by Magneto, and formed the Brotherhood of Mutants, whose goal is to defend mutants around the world. There has been a truce and mutual understanding between the two to stay secret.

The Plot:
The story begins with the X-Men recruiting a new mutant while successfully avoiding the media (which with the rise of cell phone videos is becoming more difficult). We get introduce the school and characters. On their next recruiting assignment the meet a particularly nasty mutant by the name of Wolverine, who has been laying low when suddenly they are attacked by military forces. The Team and Wolverine successfully fight them off and escape back to the school. There Wolverine tells them the he was experimented on, given metal bones, made to be a weapon, force to do missions, and has lost his memory of his prior life.

At this time Magneto has a similar experience finding Saber-tooth and learns the horrifying truth to Weapon X, a black ops multi-governmental organization that experiments on mutants. Enraged, The brotherhood attack the Weapon X facilities killing most of the security and kidnapping the scientist. Knowing now that his fears are true he decides to make a statement. He releases quite a bit of Weapon X's files to the internet then livestream/live on tv executes the hostages. His final words before the transmission is cut is "This is only the beginning" The Brotherhood then starts to attack other Weapon X and military facilities across the globe.

The world now knows of mutant's existence and are terrified at what the Brotherhood is capable of. Cyclops is convince the X-Men need to stop them, but Xavier is reluctant, he doesn't want to risk their lives, most of the team agrees. Even Wolverine wants to give Magneto a hug for taking out Weapon X. World leaders and representatives gather at a summit to discuss the mutant threat and of course the Brotherhood attacks it, taking all the representatives hostage. They're no longer just attacking military targets, the summit is located in a highly populated city and there is a lot of collateral damage. Seeing the results on the news, Cyclops decides enough is enough and resolves to go it alone, but the rest of the X-Men join him, even Wolverine. They put on new black and yellow uniforms and head out.

The team manages to sneak into the summit but are confronted by the Brotherhood, working together they manage to win and eventually come face to face with Magneto. Cyclops tries to reason with him and they debate each other but of course ends with a fight, all the X-men vs Magneto. The fight breaks out into the streets and Cyclops manages to save a news crew. Working as a team the X-Men stops Magneto. After the battle the news crew runs up to Cyclops and asks him a bunch of questions. The team gives him unsteady looks, Wolverine just nods. Cyclops looks in the camera and says, "My name is Cyclops, I am a mutant, and we are the X-Men"

A news program goes on to talk about the concern over mutants and the public's approval of the X-men. Cyclops apologizes to Xavier who disregards it. Because he is proud of Cyclops, the school was made so they can be safe and he simply never wanted to put any of them in harm's way. But is proud he stepped up. The film ends with the entire team (plus some new recruits) training in the danger room. Ending with a group shot mid-action

Characters:
Cyclops is the main character, I really like him a feel like he gets short changed a lot in the films and I always saw him as the Captain America of the team. Plus Wolverine's been the main character way too much. I would cast somewhat younger for most of the characters, so you can have actors who can grow with the franchise. Cyclops would be early twenties.

Jean Grey, a sub plot would be the romance between her and Cyclops and NO love triangle with Wolverine, I hate love triangles.

Other members of the X-men team would be Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Iceman (who may be the mutant recruited at the beginning of the film)

Magneto, I read quite a bit here about how young should you cast Magneto given that the greatest generation is getting a bit too old for action heroes. For this reboot I'd personally like to keep it young, which unfortunately would mean letting go of the holocaust back story. But I feel that all of the past X-men movies have done such a great job telling it that I would have no intention of retelling it. I don't even plan on going into his back story at all, plus you don't necessarily need it to give him that motivation.

Wolverine, one thing I would like to mention is that I would love to see him with the mask, so my idea is for him to mention that he's made a lot of enemies and decides to wear it to keep them from going after the X-men. I'm tired of the wife beater shirt, I want the mask already!

Uniforms:
I picture the uniforms all being black and yellow with different designs for each individual. Unlike the Avengers which is a group of separate heroes, the X-men were formed as a team and I think their costumes should relfect it. I'm thinking that Cyclops mentions to a student, who does tailoring, to make him an iconic uniform and the student proceeds to make a whole bunch for everyone. Maybe the mutant's power is that they can't sleep thus has a ton of time on their hands? The reason Cyclops wanted the uniform is to make the X-men appear more like heroes, like the Avengers.

Connection to the MCU:
As some have pointed out, the X-men always felt like they were separate from the rest of the Marvel Universe. While I'd kind like that to stay tonally the same, I do want it to be very much apart of the universe. I picture it being a Phase 4 film, so it's tough to say what the Avengers will be like then, but I picture them getting a few name drops. Perhaps in future films have the Avenger officially back the X-Men.

Another point is why would people persecute or be afraid of mutants when the Avengers are running around. The difference is that most of the super powered Avengers were created in extreme circumstances, chances of more Hulks showing up is rare. While just about anyone can become a mutant at any time, random people potentially given enormous power is a scary thought. And the idea that more and more popping up is even worse. Plus some people are idiots who will find a way to hate anything.

Sequel Idea:
After the first film the X-men have become quite popular using their gift to help people. Storm helps prevent drought, Jean Grey helps the police find missing persons, etc. As a result the population is very spread out over the opinions on mutant. There are people who love the X-men and what the can bring to society, and there are those incredibly worried about unregulated super powers. So there is a push to make the Mutant Registration Department, a law enforcement division solely dedicated to tracking, documenting, and detaining mutants. The MRD also employs the sentinel program, basically an iron man rip offs with sentinels of varied sizes, also some armored versions for a soldier to where. A sentinel is there to supplement an MRD team.

And you could play up SHIELD here in this X-Men reboot with X-Men being on SHIELD's radar but also wouldn't SHIELD or HYDRA see them as threats that need to be eliminated or wouldn't they see all mutants whether they be X-Men or Brotherhood as being threats?

 

[Random490]

And you could play up SHIELD here in this X-Men reboot with X-Men being on SHIELD's radar but also wouldn't SHIELD or HYDRA see them as threats that need to be eliminated or wouldn't they see all mutants whether they be X-Men or Brotherhood as being threats?

Well this movie idea is more about what happens when the world meets mutants, so SHIELD knowing about them kind of defeats the purpose. Plus the way Agents of SHIELD have been handling the Inhuman storyline makes it seem unlikely they had any prior knowledge.

One idea I've had since the early MCU days is Nick Fury having a hands off approach to Superheroes, because he knows SHIELD doesn't have the resources to go after every single one, that's why they stayed off Stark's case and only observed Banner from a distance. So for good people who have powers, he simply trusts them not to cause trouble and only intervenes when they do.

So I like the idea that Nick Fury knows about mutants, has met with Xavier, and figures he and the Brotherhood are keeping things quiet and peaceful. Plus knowing the trouble a can of worms that super humans can be born seemingly at random can cause he keeps knowledge of their existence quiet. That's one of the reasons why he backs the Avengers Initiative so much, he knows one day he'll need a team that can go toe-to-toe with super humans as well as have an infrastructure in place to recruit and train them.

But as I said, with my idea, SHIELD and HYDRA have encounter mutants but through all their studies/experiments none of them considered that these super human were simply born that way. That there must some unknown incident involved. Specially since all other super humans need and outside trigger such as a serum, gamma radiation, terrigen mists, mind stone, etc. And that's why there's a greater fear of mutants, anyone could be randomly born with the ability to destroy buildings and there's no way to prevent it.

 

[Shikamaru]

I think it's clear SHIELD doesn't know about the X-gene if it even exists.

That's really the biggest plot hole they're going to have to explain when the rights revert. Why is there zero evidence of an X-gene? Especially since evidence for the "inhuman" gene has already popped up in a few places. It wouldn't be consistent IMO.

 

[Tg11]

Well this movie idea is more about what happens when the world meets mutants, so SHIELD knowing about them kind of defeats the purpose. Plus the way Agents of SHIELD have been handling the Inhuman storyline makes it seem unlikely they had any prior knowledge.

One idea I've had since the early MCU days is Nick Fury having a hands off approach to Superheroes, because he knows SHIELD doesn't have the resources to go after every single one, that's why they stayed off Stark's case and only observed Banner from a distance. So for good people who have powers, he simply trusts them not to cause trouble and only intervenes when they do.

So I like the idea that Nick Fury knows about mutants, has met with Xavier, and figures he and the Brotherhood are keeping things quiet and peaceful. Plus knowing the trouble a can of worms that super humans can be born seemingly at random can cause he keeps knowledge of their existence quiet. That's one of the reasons why he backs the Avengers Initiative so much, he knows one day he'll need a team that can go toe-to-toe with super humans as well as have an infrastructure in place to recruit and train them.

But as I said, with my idea, SHIELD and HYDRA have encounter mutants but through all their studies/experiments none of them considered that these super human were simply born that way. That there must some unknown incident involved. Specially since all other super humans need and outside trigger such as a serum, gamma radiation, terrigen mists, mind stone, etc. And that's why there's a greater fear of mutants, anyone could be randomly born with the ability to destroy buildings and there's no way to prevent it.

I really like your idea of Fury knowing about mutants but more or less keeping his distance from them but at the same time observing them from a far but if he can do that then what does that say about the rest of SHIELD as a whole? Just because Fury would know about their existence doesn't mean other agents of SHIELD and or HYDRA wouldn't and they would or wouldn't go after them for their own purposes

 

[Random490]

I really like your idea of Fury knowing about mutants but more or less keeping his distance from them but at the same time observing them from a far but if he can do that then what does that say about the rest of SHIELD as a whole? Just because Fury would know about their existence doesn't mean other agents of SHIELD and or HYDRA wouldn't and they would or wouldn't go after them for their own purposes

Well as Shikamaru pointed out Agents of SHIELD makes it pretty clear that they wouldn't know about mutants in general. I'm trying to make things stay as in continuity as possible, specially since the current X-movies just doesn't really care. So let me go into more detail.

I recall reading, I think it was the novelization of the first X-Men movie, where they explained the X-gene being a part of Junk DNA. I really like that explanation so I'm going to run with it. Now assuming there's no new study disproving this, junk DNA is simply extra code in the DNA that does nothing. So lets say that when a mutant is born the X-gene, normal apart of the junk DNA, mutates to becomes active. And let's just say for the sake of argument that Scorch from the first season Agents of SHIELD was a mutant. When SHIELD first found and investigated him they studied his DNA and for good measure, his family. His family DNA would not show the extra X-gene that he has, just the normal junk DNA. Thus they would assume that was not born with it and the something external gave it to him. In the show they say the source of his powers are still "under investigation" but it believe to be due to a decommissioned nuclear power plant catching fire when he was young. SHIELD/HYDRA simply are looking in the wrong place so they list their powers as "unknown origin". Now after the events of my movie it can become a SHIELD/HYDRA free for all.

Also in my concept mutants are very rare out of 7 billion people maybe something like 10,000 exist across the globe, some of whom look normal and some of whom have no powers. Maybe some only have an extra rib and that's it, but their numbers are going. And in my concept only Hank McCoy and people in Weapon X had been able to figure it out (Plus a few other like Mr Sinister or something). And Weapon X is a very secretive, black ops, off the books kind of thing. Also maybe in the sequel Beast becomes famous and up for a Nobel peace prize for releasing his paper on the cause and origins of mutants.

I might add to my post I keep getting more ideas, I'm thinking the third movie would be about the Phoenix or some other omega level mutant and the debate of how to deal with it makes it and Avengers vs X-Men movie, which will end with X-Men a legitimate law enforcement by becoming a subsection of the Avengers.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

in short: I wouldn't. the last 5 x-men films (counting the Wolverine spin-offs) have been terrible and over the last decade I lost almost any interest I had in the IP I had before. let. the. mutants. die. at least 15 years between the last Fox movie and a proper X-Men film and maybe my interest will grow again. but right now? less interesting even than a Spider-Man movie for me and THAT is a character I was bored with back in the 90s.

 

[Chris B]

I apologize for bumping an old thread like this, but I recently had a thought that Denzel Washington wouldn't be a bad choice as Magneto in a project like this. Granted, that means you'd have to change his Holocaust backstory into something else (Nigerian Civil War perhaps?), but I think as long as the element of him coming from a persecuted ethnic/religious minority is kept intact, I think you can preserve the essence of the character and make it work. Despite it being a risky move.

 

[Infinight888]

What if the Mutants are really Inhumans, and the "X-Gene" is a rare gene which just unlocks some of their powers without the use of Terrigenesis, or significantly altering their DNA and vitals? This would be an easy explanation of why they all get wildly different powers from a single gene.

The big problem then is figuring out a way to really make this feel different than the Inhumans movies.

 

[ernesth100]

That's actually part of the problem I see, mutants and Inhumans are basically the same thing. So with the introductions of Inhumans in the MCU it would make all the more sense to make the X-Men into Inhumans. Possibly not Inhumans, but maybe a shunned part of the Inhuman society that the actual Inhumans themselves refer to as Inhumans.

 

[Eddie]

We should find out how Marvel plans on differentiating Mutants and Inhumans in the coming months over in the comics. Some of the books are set to feature characters from both groups together. I'd peg that Inhuman book with Beast in it as one that should really get into the subject.