What stories featuring the Original Five X-Men are there that we need an entire trilogy with them as the focus? What stories are there featuring them that couldn't be told in a flashback or be done in a prequel comic?
I have already pointed out all the downsides and issues with doing an Original Five movie. They are not issues that could be ignored, from a branding and marketing and storytelling prospective.
After we've had 18 years of X-Men movies, and one of the most popular X-Men cartoons of all time, an Original Five movie would be a tough sell. You can't do it and not alienate a large portion of the fanbase.
How do you address those issues and sell the movie to the audience that wants to see Wolverine and Storm? How do you do it and not wind up retreading X-Men First Class, or X-Men Apocalypse?
I fail to see how its an option, from a storytelling and marketing and branding prospective.
So, I have no idea where you're getting this 'entire trilogy' with them as the focus. I've just been talking about a single O5 movie at most, moving on to the more iconic group for a second film. Of course you can cover everything in a prequel comic. You can put a whole movie in a prequel comic and just have the last thirty minutes in theaters, but people won't enjoy that last thirty minutes as much as if you show them the part that makes the last bit meaningful.
I'm not saying your downsides aren't real. They can be mitigated, but there will be some people for whom Wolverine IS the X-Men and any focus away from him, much less his lack of inclusion, will be offensive. I've also pointed out the downsides to not doing an O5 film. Those don't go away either. Pluses and minuses either way.
But the downsides of the O5 can be mitigated as well. Race changes can be done, similar to how they were with MJ, and a large portion of the fanbase will not be alienated, just as small bit. Wolverine and Storm can be hinted at in the after credits, preventing them from being alienated. Retreading first class can be avoided by letting Xavier play the mentor role that you suggest for the O5 instead of the movie also being an origin for Xavier, this would allow the students to be developed instead of being expendable stock characters as in FC. Compelling characters keep it from feeling like a retread. Avoiding the XMA retread is simple because the only thing it would have in common is a budding Jean-Scott romance. Make it a love triangle with Angel... totally different spin. Also, again, the X-Men being the protagonist instead of Xavier, Magneto and Mystique changes everything.
The O5 are no different from Jay Garrick as Flash. How many of you would agree to pitch Garrick as the Flash to start your franchise? Not many. And Spidey along with Antman already set the precedent that Marvel won't just start at ground zero for everyone. You can easily present the O5 as senior members trying to teach some newbies in the debut film, if establishing them as the first team of X-men is important.
Too many of the important X-Men stories rely on us caring about the O5 going bad, dying, dealing with ghosts from their pasts or some combination thereof. Jay Garrick is not fundamental to any of Barry Allen's best stories.
We're going to get, at most, 6 X-Men movies from the MCU. They have so much ground to cover, starting from nothing with the O5 would be a huge mistake. I have no interest in seeing Scott struggle with confidence and learning to lead again, or Jean overcoming her fear and mastering her powers, or Beast grappling with self-image and his transformation. I want to see the big characters at the peak of what we love about them, so that we can invest in journeys that haven't been explored before.
When did this ever happen? We keep talking about stuff we've never seen as though it's been done.
You understand that what we see explored is what we invest in. Are you okay with the audience not being invested in Scott, Jean and Hank? Because that's kind of what you're asking. To some, THAT would be a huge mistake.
The comparison still applies, though. While Jean, Beast and Cyclops are certainly iconic, I wouldn't say they are as iconic as Storm or Wolverine, and characters like Nightcrawler, Rogue, and even Gambit are certainly more popular than Iceman or Angel.
The problem is that iconic storylines are based off of the O5. Not only that, but the reality is that ALL of those characters (maybe not Angel) were more popular and iconic than Iron Man and Captain America and Thor pre-2008. By only comparing them to other X-Men in terms of their importance, you kinda skip over how many people have wanted to see them done justice.
Also, to me, it seems strange not to take advantage of the diversity at your hands right away. The X-men is the most diverse group of mainstream superheroes, and yet we should start off with the most whitebread team?
That is an interesting quirk. They could just make the X-Men MORE diverse by making the O5 diverse in ways the other main X-Men aren't. This is what SMHC did, instead of pulling the diversity from unimportant Spidey characters, they just made the important characters diverse.
It's like... do you keep Jean because she's White, or get rid of Jean, and all the storylines attached to her to have Psylocke as your main telepathic female lead? Do you give your benched white characters' storylines to the diverse character? Psylocke mother of Cable? Why not just make Jean diverse and keep the X-Men storylines that require her intact?
That's like saying Spidey should start out as a veteran, seasoned hero - already at his physical peak, already married to MJ, already a science teacher etc. Because those were and ARE the best Spider-Man stories. But here's the thing, we spent years with Peter in High-School. Him being at his peak was built up over the years. And Marvel despite skipping Ben and the Spider-Bite has brought him back to the beginning again, the first phase of Peter's journey.
And the fact of the matter is, the MCU does not have a habit of introducing key characters and skipping to the peak of their journies. EVERY Hero so far (besides Hank Pym) has started from the beginning. Why would the X-Men be any different?
EXACTLY. And what's really interesting, a lot of people HATED the idea of scrawny teenage rookie Spider-Man, but what happens when we get in on the ground floor with a hero in a good story they endear us to them, and we find ourselves rooting for the rookie the same way we do for the veteran for the same reason, we've gone on a journey with them. And what's more, instead of just people who already care about the veteran caring about the rookie, everyone cares.
MCU Hank Pym is not a superhero, he's a mentor, and Ant-Man fans never really got over it, and it may be part of why Ant-Man is one of the more forgettable MCU films, it's built on a legacy we care nothing about. If you bring anyone other than Xavier as a pre-established master of their powers, they will, like Pym, Xavier, Fury et al be supporting cast, and any emotional impact they can have will only matter as it is filtered through the main characters, the ones who the audience gets to see learning and growing the most, the ones who are going from the normal world into the epic world, not the ones who are already in the epic world, waiting for a hero who can come save the day that they could not.
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