X-Men The Official MCU X-Men News and Discussion Thread

[AndrewGilkison]

Like I said whoever remains post Secret Wars, still won't be that young. Tom Holland is 28 today. The F4 cast are all above 30s. Even if we take out the 3 Chris, RDJ, Scarlett, Samuel, Jeremy and Mark, the MCU family are still mostly adults above 30s. Simu is 35 (like me). Letitia is 31. Ali is in his 50s if I'm not mistaken. And there aren't really a lot left to reboot outside of the X-Men as well. I can't imagine a rebooted Ghost Rider fresh out from college.

I don't think the age of the FF are relevant, because three out of the four of them were adults when the original 5 X-Men were introduced as teenagers. Spider-Man didn't spend a ton of time as a high school student in the comics before he went to college and met the supporting cast he is most known for (MJ, Gwen, Harry, etc), so you can argue he started out as at least a few years older than Jean and Scott and the other original X-Men, and thus a just now entering college aged Peter Parker isn't that big of a gap between a Jean and Scott who are mid or late-teens. Of course comic books have a sliding timescale that allows the editors to age up some characters while not touching the age of other characters, so everyone's ages gets confusing anyway. But movies can't really maintain that sliding timescale unless they continuously recast their main characters like the old school James Bond movies.

 

[Lip]

We could get into technicalities like who was younger or older than Peter and the FF back in the 60s, but I believe the best idea is to remain close to what those characters are mostly known as.

I love Evolution, but teenage X-Men did not sell that well back in the 60s or with the FC cast.

There are a variaty of different ages in the team and hopefully that will be reflected in the MCU, but characters like Scott, Jean and Storm, IMO, work better as adults than teenagers. Two of them are the biggest X-Men leaders too.

IMO characters like Cyclops and Storm should transpire an air of maturity and responsibility that adulthood brings.

 

[Sithborg]

There are very solid thematic reasons why teenage X-men works. Its why we get a new "new class" X book every decade.

 

[Lip]

And we will sure have that. But there are characters like Kitty and Jubilee. And many others actually.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

And we will sure have that. But there are characters like Kitty and Jubilee. And many others actually.

Does Feige know that? /s

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

We could get into technicalities like who was younger or older than Peter and the FF back in the 60s, but I believe the best idea is to remain close to what those characters are mostly known as.

I love Evolution, but teenage X-Men did not sell that well back in the 60s or with the FC cast.

There are a variaty of different ages in the team and hopefully that will be reflected in the MCU, but characters like Scott, Jean and Storm, IMO, work better as adults than teenagers. Two of them are the biggest X-Men leaders too.

IMO characters like Cyclops and Storm should transpire an air of maturity and responsibility that adulthood brings.

Bingo.

Clearly I don’t speak for all fans, but there are people like me who are sick of watching heroes in their formative teenage years when there are more complex and mature stories to tell with them as late twenty/thirtysomething young adults.

There’s a reason why Evolution isn’t the one with a reboot and why 97 resonated with audiences.

 

[Lip]

Bingo.

Clearly I don’t speak for all fans, but there are people like me who are sick of watching heroes in their formative teenage years when there are more complex and mature stories to tell with them as late twenty/thirtysomething young adults.

There’s a reason why Evolution isn’t the one with a reboot and why 97 resonated with audiences.

View attachment 117288

My favorite part of Evolution was that it was more serialized than 92. But it does look silly compared to 97.

I do believe there should be teenage characters like Jubs, but there are some characters who will be up and front that, IMO, should be mature.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

My favorite part of Evolution was that it was more serialized than 92. But it does look silly compared to 97.

I do believe there should be teenage characters like Jubs, but there are some characters who will be up and front that, IMO, should be mature.

The only thing I’d ever give Evolution praise for was how creative they got with action sequences. Other than that, I loathed the writing and the interpretation of some of my faves.

People love it for the lack of Scott/Jean/Logan triangle, but it still was a show that made Rogue a victim for the last 20 years coinciding with the Foxverse, did absolutely nothing with Storm, had a bunch of whiny mutant teens going to a high school when the Xavier Institute was right there, and other things that just didn’t click with me personally.

But yes, Jubilee, Kamala, they all would be great as New Mutants for MCU X-Men.

 

[squeekness]

The X-Men movie should take a break from the Wolverine and Magneto. The X-Men world is larger than those characters.

Must have more Gambit!

 

[Sithborg]

They had her as a full fledged X-man without the crutch of the Ms Marvel powers.

Besides, you know goth Rogue awakened something in a lot of people.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Bingo.

Clearly I don’t speak for all fans, but there are people like me who are sick of watching heroes in their formative teenage years when there are more complex and mature stories to tell with them as late twenty/thirtysomething young adults.

There’s a reason why Evolution isn’t the one with a reboot and why 97 resonated with audiences.

View attachment 117288

X-Men 97 is great, but that show is building off of a show that people grew up on and have nostalgia for. And it feels like a natural evolution of the 92 show.

The thing is, MCU X-Men doesn't have that going for it because it doesn't exist yet. Its a decade long universe that hasn't had mutants or known mutants, and now suddenly a thirty something Cyclops shows up with an established 30 something Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, etc? "Where were you mother****ers when aliens were attacking New York and Thanos snapped half of us out of existence for five years?" What is there to build off of? You are skipping a lot of development to basically just retread X-Men 97 in live action, without having any foundation to back it up.

That is why it makes sense for Marvel to cast Sadie Sink as Jean and make her younger, because they want young actors to grow into the roles the way Tom Holland has grown into being Spider-Man. They want people to grow up with their versions of the these characters and mature them as they go. Because old ****s like us are not the real target audience for MCU X-Men.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

X-Men 97 is great, but that show is building off of a show that people grew up on and have nostalgia for. And it feels like a natural evolution of the 92 show.

The thing is, MCU X-Men doesn't have that going for it because it doesn't exist yet. Its a decade long universe that hasn't had mutants or known mutants, and now suddenly a thirty something Cyclops shows up with an established 30 something Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, etc? "Where were you mother****ers when aliens were attacking New York and Thanos snapped half of us out of existence for five years?" What is there to build off of? You are skipping a lot of development to basically just retread X-Men 97 in live action, without having any foundation to back it up.

That is why it makes sense for Marvel to cast Sadie Sink as Jean and make her younger, because they want young actors to grow into the roles the way Tom Holland has grown into being Spider-Man. They want people to grow up with their versions of the these characters and mature them as they go. Because old ****s like us are not the real target audience for MCU X-Men.

I disagree, the MCU X-Men does have a lot going for it because it's about the X-Men. We all know the reasons why they haven't been around the MCU onscreen, but that's where the writers come in to explain a hokey reasoning for it, but then after that you get into the core of the story about these mutants protecting a world that fears and hates them.

That's another reason why this roster has to come out swinging and not using unknowns, give us the X-Men that this current Millennial generation know and love, namely them:



Save the teenage stuff for a New Mutants/Generation X spinoff.

 

[Lip]

If I'm not mistaken, the MCU has a known Gen Z problem: they're not a big part of their audience.

I disagree the main X-Men needs to be teenagers so the audience "can grow with them". People continue to grow, evolve and mature despite their age.

97 can pretty much be seen as separate from 92. I don't know anybody who watched 92 to understand 97. And 92 starts as an already stablished adult X-Men anyway.

Last, I don't think it's about doing a retread of 97, but capturing the essence of these characters as succesfully as that show did.

But this age thing is a very old topic here and there's a lot of personal preference into play. So I'll leave it from here.

 

[Lip]

Oh, one more thing, if Marvel was that much engaged into bringing more GenZs for the X-Men, I do not think they would have greenlit '97 at all.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

Oh, one more thing, if Marvel was that much engaged into bringing more GenZs for the X-Men, I do not think they would have greenlit '97 at all.

They didn't make that show for Gen Z. They made it for people who grew up with the 92 show. And that is fantastic.

But obviously the big blockbuster movies that cost upwards of $200 million to make, that is a different deal. And if they are thinking about Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, its likely they are using the 2015 Tom Holland Spider-Man model for casting some of the main X-Men. Contemporary teens/young adults who grew up with The Avengers as the main heroes. That model worked for Marvel and Sony. The Holland Spider-Man movies reversed a trend of declining box office for the Sony Spider-Man movies.

I disagree, the MCU X-Men does have a lot going for it because it's about the X-Men. We all know the reasons why they haven't been around the MCU onscreen, but that's where the writers come in to explain a hokey reasoning for it, but then after that you get into the core of the story about these mutants protecting a world that fears and hates them.

That's another reason why this roster has to come out swinging and not using unknowns, give us the X-Men that this current Millennial generation know and love, namely them:

View attachment 117295

Save the teenage stuff for a New Mutants/Generation X spinoff.

The fact that you are talking seriously about a Generation X spinoff is part of the disconnect. We are halfway into the 2020s. There is no way Marvel is going to use that as a serious title for a movie about teenage X-Men in the year 2027 or 2028. That is dated as hell, regardless of the legacy of its comic book title.

How can they tell the story about how the world hates and fears them when mutants aren't even a known global threat in the MCU yet? And why would they want to come up with a convoluted explanation for why the X-Men haven't been seen up until now, when having X-Men like Scott and Jean being teens/young adults, and having the X-Men be a newish thing, gives them a much more logical explanation that is easy for the audience to understand ("Of course the X-Men didn't show up for the Battle of New York! Cyclops was still a kid back then!")?

 

[Chris B]

Early-mid 20s is the sweet spot to me. Not too old to raise questions of where they've been the whole time but still young enough for the team to stick around for 10-15 years. Ideally I'd want the likes of Scott and Jean to be around the same age as Peter Parker, if not slightly older.

 

[psylockolussus]

I don't think the age of the FF are relevant, because three out of the four of them were adults when the original 5 X-Men were introduced as teenagers. Spider-Man didn't spend a ton of time as a high school student in the comics before he went to college and met the supporting cast he is most known for (MJ, Gwen, Harry, etc), so you can argue he started out as at least a few years older than Jean and Scott and the other original X-Men, and thus a just now entering college aged Peter Parker isn't that big of a gap between a Jean and Scott who are mid or late-teens. Of course comic books have a sliding timescale that allows the editors to age up some characters while not touching the age of other characters, so everyone's ages gets confusing anyway. But movies can't really maintain that sliding timescale unless they continuously recast their main characters like the old school James Bond movies.

The ages of the other actors in the mcu do matter. Unless you want to keep out the new X-Men cast and limit them to just X-Men movies. They would crossover simply because X-Men is one of the most lucrative ips of Marvel.

Do you really think it wouldn't look odd when you have a 18 year old Cyclops, Jean and Storm, then there's Peter Parker played by Tom Holland whom already appeared in 8 to 10 mcu movies by 2030, the new Fantastic 4 who would look older by 2030 and the other MCU cast members we've already seen.

Also, story wise, its much more interesting when the group themselves are already matured/experienced enough.

 

[BobJM]

Y’all are bugging. S3 and S4 of X-Men: Evolution was iconic

The S2 finale “Day of Reckoning” cliffhanger into the S3 premiere “Day of Recovery” (and throw in “Blind Alley” too) was awesome, and a great turning point for the show into more “adult” story-telling.

 

[BobJM]

Yeah, if Feige wants to tell the teen stories of Cyclops, Jean, Storm, then they should make a Disney+ animated series like Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Call it X-Men: Children of the Atom.

Otherwise, take a page out of X-Men ‘97’s book and start off with an adult/out-of-school team, and also feature younger characters like a teenage Iceman, Jubilee, Shadowcat, Armor, X-23, whoever,

 

[AndrewGilkison]

The ages of the other actors in the mcu do matter. Unless you want to keep out the new X-Men cast and limit them to just X-Men movies. They would crossover simply because X-Men is one of the most lucrative ips of Marvel.

Do you really think it wouldn't look odd when you have a 18 year old Cyclops, Jean and Storm, then there's Peter Parker played by Tom Holland whom already appeared in 8 to 10 mcu movies by 2030, the new Fantastic 4 who would look older by 2030 and the other MCU cast members we've already seen.

Also, story wise, its much more interesting when the group themselves are already matured/experienced enough.

Keep in mind that Tom Holland's teenage Spider-Man was introduced in Civil War and the first thing he did was fight half of the Avengers. He went toe to toe with Captain America. He took down Giant Man. And then while still a teenager he went to outer space and fought Thanos. So I don't buy this argument that a teenage Cyclops or Jean Grey wouldn't be able to have meaningful interactions or be any kind of help in crossovers with the other Marvel heroes, when they are some of the most powerful mutants in the X-Men canon.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Y’all are bugging. S3 and S4 of X-Men: Evolution was iconic

The S2 finale “Day of Reckoning” cliffhanger into the S3 premiere “Day of Recovery” (and throw in “Blind Alley” too) was awesome, and a great turning point for the show into more “adult” story-telling.

Iconic is thrown around too loosely these days my friend.

You tell me what character development did Ororo have and what did Rogue do in that show besides have PTSD and push Mystique off a balcony or whatever. And why were most of the cast all so whiny?

It wasn't no Batman Beyond, that's for damn sure.

 

[BobJM]

Rogue saved the world in the series finale by accepting her powers. Her brother literally says to her “the girl who shut herself off from the world just saved it,” and she rejects Mystique for her found family at the X-Mansion.

I would have taken more Ororo development, sure, but she was a competent leader/mentor for the team. The only female character from the series to get an action figure!

Lol the show could have been improved a number of ways, sure, but IMO it’s an underrated X-Men adaptation by fans. And yes, ICONIC. Give me a S5 continuation in digital comic form.

 

[Sithborg]

Iconic is thrown around too loosely these days my friend.

You tell me what character development did Ororo have and what did Rogue do in that show besides have PTSD and push Mystique off a balcony or whatever. And why were most of the cast all so whiny?

It wasn't no Batman Beyond, that's for damn sure.

I mean, Rogue was far, far from X-movie Rogue.



Also, you know....



As for the rest, it comes down to the problem you always have when you have a big cast. Yeah, the kids had the most focus and development.

 

[WatchProtect]

I think the only way to use teenagers is if you basically already have a trilogy roughed out.

I don't think the X-MEN would be less formidable only if the narrative called for it, like them being Being badly beaten by sentinels or Magneto because of inexperience, that plays into the story obviously.

I say you should have a trilogy mapped out because that way you can introduce a younger Mutant or two each film to sort of substitute one of the main cast members. Like if Jean is a teenager in the first film, she obviously grows up for a sequel and then you introduce a Kitty or Jubilee, or even do it exactly like Evolution where Jean and Kitty are both teens just a few years apart.

I'm actually quite surprised to see so much Evolution hate, besides Storm not being MORE I loved the show and wouldn't mind a few things being adapted from it, either visually or otherwise.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

I think the only way to use teenagers is if you basically already have a trilogy roughed out.

I don't think the X-MEN would be less formidable only if the narrative called for it, like them being Being badly beaten by sentinels or Magneto because of inexperience, that plays into the story obviously.

I say you should have a trilogy mapped out because that way you can introduce a younger Mutant or two each film to sort of substitute one of the main cast members. Like if Jean is a teenager in the first film, she obviously grows up for a sequel and then you introduce a Kitty or Jubilee, or even do it exactly like Evolution where Jean and Kitty are both teens just a few years apart.

I'm actually quite surprised to see so much Evolution hate, besides Storm not being MORE I loved the show and wouldn't mind a few things being adapted from it, either visually or otherwise.

I think casting Jean younger makes a lot of sense if they want the core team actors for the long haul. Look at what Holland has done, three Spider-Man movies, a Captain America movie, and two Avengers movies. That's six movies, and he's going to be doing at least two or three more. I think that is what they want to do with characters like Jean and Scott, get actors who can do between six and nine movies or more.

Say they want to do the Phoenix Saga properly (which FOX never did)... well you can't do that right off the bat because people still remember the earlier failed cinematic attempts and how much the comics have gone back to it. But if you cast Jean really young, you can take that actress through that character journey and the P/DP sagas become her Infinity War/Endgame sendoff, and by the time it happens the audience will be ready for it and be way more invested, because the actress has played the character for a decade by that point.