MCU X-Men

[WeaponXCII]

Xavier's powers make it an easy secret to keep.It doesn't matter if it's simpler. It's the character. Keep it or don't use the character. This whole idea of stripping Magneto of his holocaust origin just makes no sense. This isn't some vague war backstory that could be re-issued for any era. It's the holocaust. The age explanation is simple. Someone posted an idea about it having something to do with the magnetism aspect of his powers. My personal idea is making Magneto one of the many people experimented on with various versions of the super-soldier serum, like Bucky, except it was a failure and only altered his body chemistry to slow his aging rate. It adds a layer to the universe and you could even have a flashback of Captain America rescuing a child Magneto.The audience isn't stupid. It'd be easy to understand for them that Magneto has altered body chemistry or his magnetism powers make him age slower than any other normal mutant.

I can't believe that I didn't think of this angle before, but it sounds like it would work so well! They could go the super-soldier route, or alternatively, base it in the actual experiments that went on during the Holocaust... or maybe some sort of combination of the two.

 

[Iceman]

Blink's power set looked great on screen in DofP and works really well with other X-Men. I don't know if/when they would plan to use her in the MCU but DofP already gave a good baseline template for the visuals to build of if they ever do choose to use her.

 

[sleekstereo]

Just say all mutants age slower and live longer, which adds onto the hate of mutants from humans.

Done. No need to over complicate it.

 

[Mad Ones]

Comic Storylines FOX hasn't used or hasn't used the actual name for. I think Marvel could do most of these in their own way adapting what they see necessary. They mostly just copy the name like Age if Ultron or Civil War and then do whatever they like.

There are definitely a lot of catchy titles, but a lot of stories are about Mutant resurgence post M-Day, which would be hard to tell in a movie universe. I wouldn't mind if Marvel starts adapting Utopia stories in some way long after the classic Mansion narrative has been told. I like Messiah Complex and Second Coming. You also reminded me about the Legacy virus - that could potentially be quite heavy and powerful.

Picking a roster to pitch was SO hard, there's so many X-Men to choose from. You have to take into account visuals, diversity, uniqueness of power-set, character-type, etc... The team I've settled on for now is along the lines of this:

School Staff
Professor Xavier (Denzel Washington) --- Obviously the "top dog", Kind and inspirational but morally ambiguous
Forge (Adam Beach) --- Tech support, no-nonsense, won't wear a uniform
Dr. Henry McCoy (Leslie Odom Jr.) --- Science team, Charming and witty
Jubilee (Kelly Marie Tran) --- Head of Students, Overly-excited, Wants to be your friend
Alex Summers (Dacre Montgomery) --- Graduated but grounded, Impulsive, Can't control power

Mansion Field Team
Cyclops (Chris Pine) --- Team leader, Confident and strategic, Stresses a lot
Jean Grey (Blake Lively) --- Scott's second half, empathizes where he is stiff, sees the humanity behind the mission
Storm (Emayatzy Corinealdi) --- Straight-forward, powerful, does her own thing
Iceman: (Chris Colfer) --- Jokester, fun-loving, well-adjusted, openly gay
Blink: (Alia Shawkat) --- Impulsive, sarcastic, Scott's biggest headache
Rictor: (Carlos PenaVega) --- Introverted, Nervous, In a relationship with Iceman

Main Students
Quentin Quire (Finn Wolfhard) --- Rebel without a cause, Hates the school, Doesn't want to hide
Oya (Sennia Nanua) --- Faithful, Afraid of her power, Believes what the world has told her, Would rather just be cured
Armor (Piper Corda) --- Future leader, Looking for a mentor that understands her
Anole (Levi Miller) --- Bright student, Short fuse
Mercury (Sophia Lillis) --- Quiet, Doesn't want to cause any trouble
Gentle (Dante Brown) --- Struggles to control his inner rage, Not used to world outside Wakanda

The organization of the school/team here is exactly what I want to see.

I'd like to see Rictor get a push. He's in the upcoming New Mutants mini-series in the comics, but he's been in limbo since X-Factor ended. His powers would be easy to translate. A relationship with Iceman is interesting and makes sense, but I wouldn't mind if they messed things up a bit with Shatterstar and Rahne haha.

Marvel started reducing its X-men content shortly after the X-men Academy X characters were created. I hope Marvel will create content (movies, video games, cartoons) that showcase the students you chose. Also, Gentle in the comics will be on Jean Grey's team coming out in February (X-men Red).

Quentin Quire writes himself.

 

[psylockolussus]

Just say all mutants age slower and live longer, which adds onto the hate of mutants from humans.

Done. No need to over complicate it.

Nope. Again convenient writing. So how do you explain mutants like Ernst who looks older for her age?

 

[psylockolussus]

Been thinking about the first MCU X-Men film and how it can be diverse and different then what we've gotten before. The last 3 X-Men films in particular have been uncomfortably focused on white males...

Xavier's School/X-Men
Charles Xavier (Doesn't have to be white, but SHOULD be American)

Instructors (I like the Evolution approach):
Storm, Beast, Logan, maybe Forge...

Students:
Scott, Jean, Jubilee, Iceman, Nightcrawler

^trying to keep the characters interesting and the interactions dynamic. Nightcrawler adds a fun visual, and cultural diversity, Jubilee is a bit of a checked box, but her personality would add a lot of fun. Iceman should be gay and maybe even Latino/black.
Scott and Jean can be a little mayonnaise-y tho. Hahaha...


Haven't thought about the villains, but knowing Feige it would be something we haven't gotten before. So, no Magneto (yet) probably no brotherhood, and no politics/human villains.

So now Logan get to teach Scott and Jean. Err. And Iceman doesn't need a race change. This would be Human Torch all.over again.

 

[Tymminator]

Nope. Again convenient writing. So how do you explain mutants like Ernst who looks older for her age?

I also just find that cheap. Ageing slower is a mutant power in itself. One that a few have like Wolverine, Sabertooth, Mystique, etc but I don’t think it should be “given” so freely to every mutant like a gift basket. Just my personal opinion.

 

[Silvermoth]

If it ain't Dafne Keen, I don't want to see another X-23.

But yeah, I don't think it will be that WHOLE team, but that is the lineup the MCU will draw from.

I hate to say it but we should be prepared Marvel won't keep anyone. Not even sir Ian or sir pat stew.

What do you reckon about Alison Williams as a good animated series inspired Jean Girl

 

[psylockolussus]

I also just find that cheap. Ageing slower is a mutant power in itself. One that a few have like Wolverine, Sabertooth, Mystique, etc but I don’t think it should be “given” so freely to every mutant like a gift basket. Just my personal opinion.

I know. So if Xavier/Erik are aging slower but they look old, would that make them 150 yo? The great thing about mutants is they have different gifts and that makes them more unique from 1 another, and the top X-Men rarely share a similar mutant skills from their top peers, not everyone has telepathy or tk or super strength.

 

[Silvermoth]

I would love a Harry Potter style to this actually. Major stars for villain and teachers but unknowns for the actual xmen.

I wonder who the first villain will be? Marvel likes a basic villain first so they can establish the characters so for all we know it could be unus the untouchable! I would love to see a proper Juggernaut though as a second tier villain. Either juggs or sentinels for the training villain

 

[DrCosmic]

Luke Hemsworth is kinda bland. He wasn’t even that good on Westworld. They can do better.

He was in Thor Ragnarok also, so, he's kinda been done.

I don't think it has to be a secondary mutation, but it could be a side effect of using electromagnetic forces. Maybe something to do with the iron in his body and how it affects his blood cells, which then slows down the ageing.

There's lots of cool science fiction that could be used. My only point in that comparison is that offering a sci fi solution that changes is a poor base to point at others who use grounded natural solutions as 'overcomplicating' things. We all know Beginning a career at 85 with mutant powers you've had for 70 years doesn't make sense. We all know having big explosive fights that no one knows about doesn't make sense. Everyone does, that's not overthinking. But, if simple is the goal, if occam's razor is superior, then how simple is your solution?

It doesn't matter if it's simpler. It's the character. Keep it or don't use the character. This whole idea of stripping Magneto of his holocaust origin just makes no sense. This isn't some vague war backstory that could be re-issued for any era. It's the holocaust. The age explanation is simple. Someone posted an idea about it having something to do with the magnetism aspect of his powers. My personal idea is making Magneto one of the many people experimented on with various versions of the super-soldier serum, like Bucky, except it was a failure and only altered his body chemistry to slow his aging rate. It adds a layer to the universe and you could even have a flashback of Captain America rescuing a child Magneto.The audience isn't stupid. It'd be easy to understand for them that Magneto has altered body chemistry or his magnetism powers make him age slower than any other normal mutant.

The audience isn't stupid, you're right. That's why they know when something contrived is shoehorned in, and become less invested in things that happen for dumb reasons, precisely because they do understand. Making Magneto a failed super soldier is pretty high up there in terms of poor changes, I think. We certainly would have crucified Fox for doing something like that, because that's not the character of Magneto. He's not a man out of time. Adding that layer to the universe doesn't make him more interesting, it dilutes the character.

Adaptation is difficult for just this reason. Because Magneto doesn't begin his career as an elderly man, and he is a survivor of WWII, he simply doesn't work as is in 2020 in live action. So you have to lose something for him to make sense like he did in the 60s. Do you lose Magneto's perspective, turning him into a man out of time, or do you lose the particular location where experienced genoicide as a child?

Xavier's powers make it an easy secret to keep.

This is a great example of how simpler is better. When you try to explain simple things like 'we've never heard of the X-Men' with sci fi like "Xavier wiped all the minds" instead of the simple "they're just starting out" you end up with a problem where Xavier has the ability to alter minds at great distances, perfectly. This means that for the X-Men to have any problems or real missions, Xavier either has to be out of commission, or simply forget his powers.

Simpler is better. Another example:

Just say all mutants age slower and live longer, which adds onto the hate of mutants from humans.

Done. No need to over complicate it.

How would humans even know about this? Why would they care? Are there centenarians you hate for living so long?

The simplest answer is that they age normally. Weird aging cannot be simpler than normal aging.

Xavier's School/X-Men
Charles Xavier (Doesn't have to be white, but SHOULD be American)

Instructors (I like the Evolution approach):
Storm, Beast, Logan, maybe Forge...

Students:
Scott, Jean, Jubilee, Iceman, Nightcrawler

Nice. Mine breaks down similar for an initial film:

Mature Adults: Xavier, Moira, Betsy Braddock (pre-Asian), Sean Cassidy, Senator Kelly, Henry P. Gyrich, Fred Duncan, Val Cooper
Young Adults: Scott, Jean, Hank (brown), Candy Southern (open ethnicity), Tessa (Hispanic), Warren W3
Older Teens: Storm, Colossus, Bobby
Young Teens: Nightcrawler, Shadowcat

It sounds like a lot, but it's just Avengers in balancing time and personal storylines. Xavier is Fury, Tessa is Agent Hill. Storm is Tony, Scott is Cap, Jean is Hulk, Colossus is Widow, Betsy is Coulson, Warren is Hawkeye, Hank is Thor, Moira is Eric Selvig, Candy is Pepper, Sean is Sitwell, Fred and Val are the World Security Council. Senator Kelly and Henry Gyrich are Thanos and the Other. Friends of Humanity are the Chitauri, Bobby is actually Henry Dean Stanton's security guard in terms of being one deep conversation and Shadow King is Loki. The particular relationships change, but in terms of screen time and development and audience investment in the characters, that's it. It also means that the main team is just Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Colossus, Storm and Angel. You could trade Angel for Bobby if you wanted. Then in the sequel, it's three years later, all the older teens are YA, the young teens are older teens and you've got new young and older teens coming through.

Going with that theme, if X-Men: Homecoming 2 is analagous to Avengers: AOU, then Kitty is Rhodey, Kwannon Betsy is Sam, Rogue is Scarlet Witch, Nightcrawler is Quicksilver, Logan is Vision, Exodus is Ultron, Fabian Cortez is Dr. Cho, the Acolytes are the Ultron army, and Candy and her friends are Mrs. Hawkeye and the kids. Asteroid M is Sokovia.

And still going, if XM:HC3 is Civil War, then Sunfire is Black PAnther, Jubilee is Peter, Gambit is Bucky, Alex and Lorna are Sharon, Prez Kelly is T-Bolt Ross, Val Cooper is Ev Ross, Dazzler is Ant-Man, Omega Red is Crossbones, Xavier is FRIDAY, Rose and Papa Logan are Howard and Maria Stark, Phoenix is Zemo... or maybe it's Onslaught or Cassandra Nova. Though of course, some roles switch around so Storm is more the Vision, Scott more then Cap and Logan more the Iron Man.

Also... I found my ideal new Logan.
Short (5'5")
Young (early 30s)
Can fight like a maniac
Tons of geek cred
Not tied to anything else big right now
Affordable price tag
Already been used in another big Disney project, but was wasted
Will instantly generate attention, eyeballs and goodwill for the project

Iko Uwais (The Raid: Redemption)

I think I said before Wolverine is pretty fundamentally White because of his class, time period and location, but when you get a fit this close, you see if you can bend a little bit, and convenient enough, Logan is an illegitimate child of the groundskeeper, who could be any race. Plus, if Papa Logan were East Asian, that would actually explain Wolverine randomly hopping off to Japan years later. That means it makes Wolverine's story more grounded, on top of all the other plusses. My only question: can he grow facial hair?

 

[Fincher]

It sounds like a lot, but it's just Avengers in balancing time and personal storylines.

And that might be good for those of you who like the Avengers movies, but as someone who doesn't, who finds them overstuffed, the idea that that's the model Marvel might follow in making X-Men films is a big concern for me.

 

[DrCosmic]

And that might be good for those of you who like the Avengers movies, but as someone who doesn't, who finds them overstuffed, the idea that that's the model Marvel might follow in making X-Men films is a big concern for me.

Really? Are there any ensemble action films you do like? Not being facetious, but I personally think that Avengers 1 particularly handled it's cast with a wonderfully deft hand. Still, I was thinking of what it might look like using GotG's cast as a basis:

Scott is Quill, Ororo is Gamora, Jean is Groot, Hank is Rocket, Colossus is Drax, Warren is Yondu, Val is Nebula, Fred Duncan is Korath, Shadow King is Ronan, Sean is John C. Reilly, Xavier is The Collector, Tessa is Karina, Moira is Nova Prime, Senator Kelly is still Thanos, Gyrich still The Other, Candy is random chick on the ship, and... hmmm... looks like there's significantly fewer characters here...

 

[AndrewGilkison]

What I love about the Avengers and Guardians movies is that every main character gets a moment to shine or a character moment and that they feel like true assembles.

Too many characters in the X-Men movies have been under-developed or used just for F/X scenes and action scenes while standing in the background the rest of the time.

 

[fan4stic]

The audience isn't stupid, you're right. That's why they know when something contrived is shoehorned in, and become less invested in things that happen for dumb reasons, precisely because they do understand. Making Magneto a failed super soldier is pretty high up there in terms of poor changes, I think. We certainly would have crucified Fox for doing something like that, because that's not the character of Magneto. He's not a man out of time. Adding that layer to the universe doesn't make him more interesting, it dilutes the character.

Adaptation is difficult for just this reason. Because Magneto doesn't begin his career as an elderly man, and he is a survivor of WWII, he simply doesn't work as is in 2020 in live action. So you have to lose something for him to make sense like he did in the 60s. Do you lose Magneto's perspective, turning him into a man out of time, or do you lose the particular location where experienced genoicide as a child?

He's not out of time. He just ages slowly. And it would tie into real world history of the nazi's experimenting on people. And this could all tie into the world of the MCU by having young Magneto saved by CA. It's great.
Otherwise, what's even the point of using Magneto if we're gonna change aspect of his character that still has strong relevance to this day.

This is a great example of how simpler is better. When you try to explain simple things like 'we've never heard of the X-Men' with sci fi like "Xavier wiped all the minds" instead of the simple "they're just starting out" you end up with a problem where Xavier has the ability to alter minds at great distances, perfectly. This means that for the X-Men to have any problems or real missions, Xavier either has to be out of commission, or simply forget his powers.

You can have the X-Men just starting out, but have it so mutants have existed for decades. Xavier can have his school to have existed for years, but humans don't know its for mutants etc etc.

 

[Fincher]

Really? Are there any ensemble action films you do like? Not being facetious, but I personally think that Avengers 1 particularly handled it's cast with a wonderfully deft hand.

I guess it depends on what you call an ensemble film. Civil War was all right, thanks in part to better content/execution and in part to having more to build off of. I still thought it could have done with fewer characters, though, and I still would have much preferred another solo Captain America film.

People badmouth the Fox movies for lead characters, but I consider that a good thing. It doesn't have to be Wolverine every time, but focusing on a smaller number of characters means there's time to give those characters/interactions weight instead of spreading everything thin. I didn't care that Coulson died, or that Hawkeye was brainwashed, or that Steve and Tony argued over whatever. I liked Hawkeye in Age of Ultron, so there's that, but it wasn't enough to carry the film. As far as I'm concerned, X-Men 1 was more or less pitch perfect.

Now on a TV show like The Gifted, you can spread the love around more and still have time to do everyone justice. Ideally, the mainline X-Men would be a TV show, but...

 

[DrCosmic]

^Oh, dang, well, I guess we just disagree. X-Men 1 shafted so many great characters. It wasn't just that it focused on Wolverine, but it did so little with the little time it spent on other characters, it turned beloved superheroes unlikable, and that's just not okay with me. When X2 came out and doubled down on this approach, it kinda felt malicious, which means he didn't know the value of what he had, and that turned me off from Fox's X-Men and Singer from then on.

But for the record, things I call ensemble action films that I liked
Ocean's 11 - A trinity and a bunch of specialists who are all great
Lord of the Rings - nuff said
The Magnificent Seven - another trinity and a bunch of specialists who are all amazing
Inception - leans more towards the X1 solo style, but actually makes all the supports cool, capable and interesting
Star Trek 2009 - pitch perfect example of two male co-leads

He's not out of time. He just ages slowly. And it would tie into real world history of the nazi's experimenting on people. And this could all tie into the world of the MCU by having young Magneto saved by CA. It's great.

Otherwise, what's even the point of using Magneto if we're gonna change aspect of his character that still has strong relevance to this day.You can have the X-Men just starting out, but have it so mutants have existed for decades. Xavier can have his school to have existed for years, but humans don't know its for mutants etc etc.

It's not Magneto. He's not a character who benefited from the Nazis. He's not a character who owes his life to Captain America, and has concrete evidence from his youth that humans will help him out and not fear him. You're literally building a character with very different childhood experiences, and thus different values. This kind of stuff is what happens when you complicate the character, to say nothing of how, if he's 85, he's a character who has been able to stop any genoicide in recent history and just chose not to.

All genocides have strong relevance to this day. WWII survivors have no affect on my daily life, but I work with a guy who is only here because he had to flee Cambodia as a child. The pain and consequences of that genocide is now something that is affecting your internet conversation. How does the evil of Nazi concentration camps affect your daily life? If it doesn't, do you believe that the Cambodian genocide has a more direct affect on your life and conversation?

This is the part of this argument for 85 y.o. Magneto that is so amazing to me. If a child lives through the Rwandan Genocide, are they any less upset or motivated than a child who lives through Nazi Genocides? What aspect of his character: his nature, personality, perspective, and anger, has changed exactly?

Why have mutants exist for decades? Why have the school exist for years? How does that help the story of X-Men: Homecoming? How does that help the MCU? Why do you want to rob the audience of investing in the growth of the X-Men the way they saw with the Avengers, and even with the Guardians of the Galaxy? Why aren't the audience allowed to see the first students learn and grow? Why break the rule of 'show don't tell' when you don't have to?

 

[AndrewGilkison]

I would do the Giant Size X-Men #1/All New All Different approach and introduce the X-Men into the MCU by having Xavier recruit Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and maybe an 16-18 year old Kitty Pryde, and have Cyclops and Jean lead them. The original five operated in secret ten years earlier (kind of like Hank Pym operated as Ant-Man decades before Scott Lang stole the suit).

 

[Raiden]

I hate to say it but we should be prepared Marvel won't keep anyone. Not even sir Ian or sir pat stew.

What do you reckon about Alison Williams as a good animated series inspired Jean Girl

Why should Marvel keeps the convoluted continuity from Fox's X-Men? It's not worth it even if the goal is to try to keep most of the talented actors. Feige already had a plan and I'm sure his mind is working on how to integrate the X-Men to MCU. Let him make the decisions; he has earned that right.

 

[Zarex]

I think I said before Wolverine is pretty fundamentally White because of his class, time period and location, but when you get a fit this close, you see if you can bend a little bit, and convenient enough, Logan is an illegitimate child of the groundskeeper, who could be any race. Plus, if Papa Logan were East Asian, that would actually explain Wolverine randomly hopping off to Japan years later. That means it makes Wolverine's story more grounded, on top of all the other plusses. My only question: can he grow facial hair?

I was thinking a First Nations background for the All New All Different MCU Logan,but Asian ethnicity makes a lot of sense due to his strong Japanse ties. With the MCU's woeful track record in Asian males representation, casting one as a Marvel A Lister would go a long way. Add to that the possibility of brilliant fight scenes and I am totally onboard with Mr. Uwais.

 

[CaptainWagner]

Marvel started reducing its X-men content shortly after the X-men Academy X characters were created. I hope Marvel will create content (movies, video games, cartoons) that showcase the students you chose. Also, Gentle in the comics will be on Jean Grey's team coming out in February (X-men Red).

Quentin Quire writes himself.

I was SO happy to see Gentle make the Red roster. I'm super excited for that book!

And if any of the post-2000 students get in, it needs to be Quentin. He's a pop culture sensation in the making.

I know. So if Xavier/Erik are aging slower but they look old, would that make them 150 yo? The great thing about mutants is they have different gifts and that makes them more unique from 1 another, and the top X-Men rarely share a similar mutant skills from their top peers, not everyone has telepathy or tk or super strength.

Yeah, the delayed aging is just unnecessary convolution, IMO. The Holocaust specifically is not what makes Magneto who he is. We need to stop making excuses and accept an updated origin with any number of more recent tragedies.

I would love a Harry Potter style to this actually. Major stars for villain and teachers but unknowns for the actual xmen.

I wonder who the first villain will be? Marvel likes a basic villain first so they can establish the characters so for all we know it could be unus the untouchable! I would love to see a proper Juggernaut though as a second tier villain. Either juggs or sentinels for the training villain

I agree, especially since I want the focus to be on the students this time around. We've yet to get that from an X-Men franchise so far. As for villains, so long as Magneto is not a primary antagonist for at least the first "Phase" of the new franchise, I'm happy. Juggernaut/Black Tom could work in a sort of "treasure hunt" story involving the Cyttotark Crystal. I also think these are prime candidates:

Mr. Sinister: Bryan Cranston
Could be the scientist who exposes mutants to the world at large.

Arcade: Andrew Scott
Running some sort of elaborate super-powered gladiatorial arena with mutants as the "entertainment. Perhaps his arena could be Krakoa...

But the Big Bad I want to see this time around, someone who can be a threat to help tie the X-Men in with the cosmic MCU: Vulcan!!!

 

[Texas Zombie]

I would definitely watch a Gambit Netflix show. Just saying.

 

[Obsidian Idea]

For MCU Storm...

View attachment 747full-lisa-arrindell-anderson.jpg
Lisa Arrindell

 

[Obsidian Idea]

or Salli Richardson-Whitfield
View attachment Salli-Richardson-Whitfield_-Words-Plus-Music-Celebration--01-662x927.jpg

 

[spider-neil]

Moriarty as Arcade is a very good shout.