I have a question do you guys think a movie with the original five members could work? Or should they add a few characters we’ve never seen before. I honestly wouldn’t mind waiting to see Storm, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit l, etc added in later films.
I wouldn’t mind if Thunderbird was the sixth member in the first movie and died at the end.
I’d say the best way to do it would be to have the original 5 introduced, than make the plot about them finding out a collection of other mutants is being illegally held by the US government and making it their mission to free them, eventually merging the two groups together, and going ahead and defining the X-Men’s antagonistic relationship with authorities.
Maybe one of the kids escapes and makes contact with the original 5 X-Men.
I know I’ve said this before, but maybe X-23 is the one who escapes and makes contact with the X-Men? That way a Wolverine character is involved, and you can really throw some crazy stuff into the chemistry of the group once Logan actually arrives; her and Cyke getting along well would make the traditional Wolverine vs Cyclops rivalry more nuanced and funny.
Soooo... how’s about Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel are alerted to a problem by X-23, to rescue her other compatriots, Storm (full punk haircut and attitude), Polaris (for a later Magneto connection, though maybe she’d his granddaughter or something), Dust (for some more diversity and because her powerset is still dangerous), and Nightcrawler, with other younger mutants like Jubilee and others being collected as well.
I would bet money that Mr. Sinister/Nathaniel Essex will be one of the first big villains they deal with; he's the most popular baddie that they haven't used, and even teased him in the post-credits for Apocalypse.
He's a tricky character to adapt, mostly due to his bonkers name and attire. Only the 90s cartoon brought him to life successfully, mostly by not bothering to explain why he is the way he is and jumping right to making him scary as eff.
Sinister feels like an excellent villain to have as a starter, especially given his mad scientist side. You could
easily make him the guy who has been gathering mutants in a kind of twisted reversal of Xavier and Magneto’s usual schtick, and I’d saying making him a 200+ year old mutate and leaning into his creepy nature would work wonders.
And as to the name and his general appearance, here’s an idea: Jean picks up on other people’s memories and impressions of him to get a “sinister” impression of a manipulative figure before the real deal appears and calls him such to describe how creepy he is... and as a telepath himself, Essex
likes the appellation and takes it informally.
