Potential spoilers for the future of the mcu, particularly multiverse of madness, if certain
rumours turn out to be true.
Of course, I have as much idea as you as to whether or not certain things are actually
true, so proceed with caution.
But honestly, I’d be shocked if you didn’t know what I was going to say here, its been
shotgunned all over the internet.
Can nothing be kept under wraps anymore?
Oh and spoilers for No Way Home, the rest of the MCU blah blah blah.
Last year WandaVision kicked off the MCU’s mind-blowing cameo reveal era, otherwise known
as phase 4, with the introduction of the Fox X-Men’s Quicksilver.
The Evan Peters original recipe cinematic speedster meeting his sister from another
universe in Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch was a tantalising glimpse into what potential
could be mined from having the already established cinematic X-men fold into the MCU.
When Disney acquired Fox I thought - Jesus, that’s bleak and oh, they’ll probably
reboot the X-Men.
But all of that was thrown into chaos when Evan Peters jumped into WandaVision.
How could this not signal the coming of the Fox-Men?
Well by the finale, we all got a taste of boner - Ralph Boner.
[Ralph Boner?]
I don’t think it was ridiculous to expect Peters to genuinely be his version of Quicksilver
when the very next movie Wanda was appearing in was called the Multiverse of Madness.
But hey ho, it genuinely seems like Evan Peters was just in the series for an extended joke.
That sucks, because Evan Peter’s Quicksilver was awesome and I don’t know anybody who
wouldn’t enjoy seeing more of him.
Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool might be a bit of a meta side piece to the Fox Universe in the
first place, but there is no denying his world is definitively tied to the Huge Jacked Man
Mutant film canon.
Marvel have confirmed a another film starring Reynolds will happen in the MCU.
So that two characters…
And now - this is your last chance - there are multiple rumours that Patrick Stewart,
freaking Patrick Stewart is coming back as Professor Xavier.
if we’re going to bring back Patrick Stewart’s Xavier in any form then the MCU is actively
working against its own X-Men reboot later down the line.
Because Stewart is going to fucking kill the role again, obviously.
And then what?
I’m supposed to just accept a new Xavier…
when I know that this version is 100% out there in the multiverse.
Nah.
That’s going to be a tough pill to swallow.
If this turns out to be true, that will be three key Fox characters carving out a spot
in the MCU, and I’m sorry, but at that point, the thought of a completely recast and rebooted
X-Men seems rather pointless to me.
If you’re going to have your No Way Home moment, not once, not twice, but three times
- and lovingly recreate the characters from that other universe, then what is the point
in wiping it all away to start over?
If you’re acknowledging the most memorable and beloved parts of those worlds, then you
should double down and incorporate everything that people really did think worked about
those films.
I don’t believe the X-Men really need a hard reboot in the MCU, and in this video
I hope to convince you of that.
I’m sure there’s some viewers who hated the original Fox-Men films in their entirety,
and those viewers are bloody cowards!
First off, lets talk about the notion of these portal cameos - i.e. returning legacy characters
from other marvel universes stepping into the MCU.
If you’re going to bring characters back, you need to have a good reason beyond the
surprise of doing so.
Having Garfield’s Peter catch MJ in No Way home is a great way of furthering a cameo
into a key supporting part that honours their personal journey.
Everyone was jazzed for Evan Peters to come back, but the lasting impact of that was hollow
because we all got sucker punched by Ralph’s throbbing boner.
If Quicksilver had really been Quicksilver and he had stuck around in Wanda’s life,
I can’t imagine that would have gotten much protesting.
We would have gotten more awesome speedster scenes and it would be a chance to more fully
develop that famous twin relationship - based on the 616 version!
It’s okay to bring in legacy characters if there’s a compelling narrative reason,
and fortunately Wanda provides that aplenty.
She’s the biological daughter of Magneto, the sister of Pietro, as well as one of the
most powerful mutants ever.
This is a hero that could go toe to toe with Xavier or Magneto.
She could easily be a witch and a mutant, not to mention an Avenger and an X-Man.
Scarlet Witch is the perfect bridge between these two worlds - and it would be easy to
dive into the blood ties as yet unexplored.
Micheal Fassbender’s Magneto and Ian McKellan’s Magento are both awesome and some of the best
comic book villainy ever put to screen.
Either one of them would crush it as the dark father to Wanda Maximoff.
The original X-Men series barely touched upon his fatherly connection to Pietro as it is
- so we could kill two birds with one stone in that regard.
The twins vs Daddy Mags - I’m game for it.
Liz Olsen’s Witch has grown from strength to strength over the years to become one of
the MCU’s best characters.
Infinitely powerful but also emotionally fraught and beset by tragedy after tragedy, it would
be awesome to see her find a home amongst Marvel’s persecuted heroes.
She’s been a steady supporting character, then got her own Disney Plus series and will
surely shine in this year’s Multiverse of Madness.
From there, not giving her the lead in her own movie would be down right criminal and
I don’t think there’s a better fit than - Scarlet Witch and the X-Men.
It uh, doesn’t need to be called that - but you get
the point.
In terms of continuity and casting - just cherry pick what you want.
Maybe apocalypse didn’t happen, because everyone thought it was shit.
We could include all the good films’ overarching lore and then just equate anything that doesn’t
get referenced again as a variant timeline - it doesn’t even need to be addressed does
it?
Who cares where x-men the last stand fits in anymore.
The stuff that really worked...
worked well, and the series managed to survive for 17 years still producing a gem every couple
of years.
They’ve had a bunch of great characters and moments and arcs and at their best they’ve
been just as good if not better than the marvel cinematic universe and all its offerings.
So I can’t help but be a little saddened by the notion that everyone is clamouring
for an x-men reboot - because it seems like that will end in misery.
Imagine if we reboot all of this stuff and the fanbase rejects it anyway -
Kinda like how everyone thought spider-man 3 sucked but all these years later we went
wild to see a glimpse, a hint of that world folding back in.
No Way Home, and the subsequent frenzy from fans desiring a Spider-Man 4 and an Amazing
Spider-Man 3, says to me that deep down the appearances of all these older heroes would
pan out better than a reboot.
Listen, I love Mahershala Ali - he will be a credit to the MCU and he’s a fantastic
actor.
But I can’t help but feel a little saddened by the fact that his presence means original
recipe Blade won’t get his No Way Home moment.
Blade was just as important as the first Spider-Man in securing the golden era of the comic book
movie.
In spite of a lacklustre third film, people still love and remember the worlds that both
heroes inhabited because of how good the first two instalments were.
Fans were calling for more Blade since the MCU began - and yeah, maybe we would have
all expected a reboot a few years ago, but now the landscape has completely changed.
If we can get J.K.
Simmons, Evan Peters, Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Nofrio, Andrew Garfield, Jamie Foxx, Willem
Dafoe, Thomas Haden Church, Rhys Ifhans, Alfred Molina and Tobey freaking Maguire back…
then where is Snipes?
With the notable exceptions of Vinnie Jones and Sophie Turner, the X-Men movies problem
was never really the casting.
For example, Tye Sheridan never got to star in a good movie as cyclops - but does he have
the potential to be a great cyclops?
Almost definitely.
Last year I got to see him in the card counter and the tender bar and he was one of the best
things in both of those movies.
He’s got a naturally likeable charm and I think with the right creative foundations
like a banging script - well you’d really have yourself a cyclops stew going.
I’m really glad that Hugh Jackman got to do Logan before we reached the state of comic
book movies now, because he almost certainly would have returned.
Logan is really special and its a bit of a miracle it got made in the current blockbuster
landscape, so anything that threatens that and that perfect bookend to his Wolverine
is a big no no for me.
Jackman expressed his enthusiasm for the MCU in the past and, no doubt, seeing him bat
off Cap and Iron Man and all the rest would have been great to see.
But it's too late now.
We got a really neat, confident creative end for Logan in uh, Logan, and so anything past
that would be odd.
If the MCU’s X-Men is in desperate need of an adamantium mutant, then capitalise on
the only aspect of Logan that could warrant any expansion.
X-23 aka Laura aka the Wolverine.
Dafne Keen will have aged further into the role since her first appearance, but if she
doesn’t want to return I have no problem with casting an adult version of the character
hailing from that continuity.
You know how Old Man Logan joined the main marvel universe for a time?
Just do it like that.
And you know who else should come back to face her?
Liev Schrieber’s Sabertooth - I don’t care what anyone says - he was an awesome
Sabertooth.
See, X-Men Origins Wolverine might blow steaming mutant chunks, but there’s no reason why
another appearance from Live Shcrieber would have to suck.
Takes the good parts, leave the rest.
I want to see the new Wolverine cut Sabertooth’s head off.
On top of all that the franchise was often criticised for putting Wolverine too front
and centre, so its not like a) we haven’t already had so much of him b) his absence
will allow a whole host of other characters to shine.
Laura’s Wolverine and Sabertooth could more than cover the Weapon X Contingent.
All that aside I know how much people love Wolverine so if you really need to reboot
him… gah.. do it.
But personally I think there’s other characters I’d rather see start fresh like Gambit.
The idea of a multiverse is a fantastic little screen writing get out of jail free card,
because you can easily hand wave away how Dafne Keen’s character from the Logan continuity
could stand alongside Halle Berry’s Storm and Tye Sheridan’s Cyclops.
Who even cares if we have to cherry pick multiple contradictory elements from the X-Men series
- once they migrate to the MCU its all unified again.
You could absolutely use it to tear up the rulebook; Micheal Fassbender’s Magneto could
just as easily show up from the 60s as Ian McKellan’s contemporary skin.
X-23 comes from a nigh-post apocalyptic world but that won’t matter.
Granted, this could all happen with an all new hard rebooted X-Men team with an all new
cast and continuity.
But Ryan Reynolds Deadpool will continue, and we’ll always remember when Patty Stew
and Mr Peters came to town.
As far as I’m concerned, the toothpaste is out of the tube.
Spare us the mess of rehashing the X-Men and instead skip all the origins and introductions
- wow audiences the way you did with No Way Home and bring the shiniest parts of the Fox
verse over to tell new stories.
I’m sure many will say that they would absolutely prefer to see everything start over, but come
back to me when Patrick Stewart kicks all kinds of arse in Multiverse of Madness.
Are you seriously telling me you don’t want Jordan Peele’s X-Men with Patrick Stewart
back?
Abdul Manteen II would make a wicked gambit.
Ana Lily Amirpour’s X-Men?
She already directed episode of the woefully underrated Legion.
Hell, I’d love to see Matthew Vaughn come back and finally get to finish the X-Men vision
he carved out before Bryan Singer charged back in.
Because of Singer being such a see you next Tuesday, people have largely forgotten how
good the original two x-men movies were, and how influential they were for the genre.
And thankfully, there’s other good X-men movies less tarnished by singer’s looming
shadow.
You have the work of Matthew Vaughn, James Mangold, Tim Miller.
Basically, between the host of other creatives that have worked on the series on and off
screen, I think its suffice to say there’s enough goodwill to jettison the aftertaste
of Singer and focus on what brought a lot of joy to so many audiences.
Shawn Ashmore recently said he’s be up for the mcu.
After x men 3 there was at one point talk of a trio-led x men movie starring ashmore
iceman Anna paquins rogue and Elliot pages kitty prude.
All three of them have range and brought a lot to their respective roles.
I would absolutely be happy to see all three of them return, maybe this time as the older
gen of x-man.
That’s the beauty of the x men.
There’s so damn many of them, and good ones to boot.
Yeah lush there’s even characters that haven’t been brought to the screen properly yet.
Gambit has never turned up in the x-men, so you have a blank slate there.
Shit, I wouldn’t care if you put Micheal Fassbender next to Halle Berry it’s all
wibbly wobbly time wimey anyway - the original continuity was hanging together by a thread
- I’m perfectly happy for them to mash casts together and forge ahead with whoever wants
to come back.
Imagine if we got Alan Cumming back, or Kesley Grammar.
Unlike some of the potential cameos the MCU could bank on from the wider multiverse of
Marvel movies, bringing back many of the X-Men would be a chance to give those original characters
something more to chew on.
There’s plenty of god-tier casting in the fox verse that deserves some more screen time
exactly like how Andrew Garfeild’s Spider-Man shined in No Way Home.
But look, I know how you internet people get - I don’t imagine many people would be okay
with having different eras of the original series meshing together - its too disco for
you, I get it - well why not just have some dual storylines.
I must admit, when days of future past came out and it featured the old and new cast - I
thought that was going to be the new status quo.
After all, they wouldn’t do all that and get Hugh Jackman back into the mainline series
only to bench him right?
Except X-Men Apocalypse came and went and for some reason it solely focus on the younger
prequel iterations.
At a time when the X-Men series need to represent a shake up to the standard structure of an
MCU adventure, Apocalypse could have and should have featured both casts in a non-linear storyline.
We could have flip flopped between two timelines with a unifying threat - En-Sabah Nur certainly
fits that bill.
What if he had resurged in the Patrick Stewart timeline only for the professor to reveal
this is not the first time the X-Mne and the Brotherhood have faced him… in comes the
James McAvoy cast and their own plot thread.
I’m spitballing here but the salient point is that it was stupid to get the old cast
back and then banish them when everyone loved seeing the timelines interact.
Given the fact that most MCU movies follow a fairly standard pattern laid out across
2 hours and 15 minutes, wouldn’t it be cool to do a more challenging balancing act and
do something with both casts - you don’t have to cram everyone in, focus on just a
handful of x-men but work the decades long gap between the period and contemporary characters.
Loosely refer to the mythology of First Class and Days of Future Past for the prequel cast,
refer to the original two movies for the modern team.
Much like the doctor being half human, it will likely rarely come up in conversation.
New stories can propel the situations we find these characters in, sprinkle in an MCU mainstay
or two to tie it all together and well, it looks like we might have an X-stew going!
The X-Men franchise has had some stinkers but it would be a gross overreaction to deem
it a sullied enterprise.
Feige and the team at Marvel must be aware of the potential that lies in Patrick Stewart,
Reynold’s Deadpool and even Evan Peter’s Quicksilver to have them pop up at all.
Why not stop edging us and just go the distance.
If the MCU does fully reboot the X-Men then that won’t be the worst thing in the world
- and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad - I just think it will be a tiny
bit exhausting and just might be worse.
And I think we’ll look back on those time Evan Peters and Patrick Stewart popped up,
only to be replaced by fresh-faced counterparts, and we’ll wonder what the point of them
turning up in the first place was.
Oh, and Deadpool will be making fourth wall jokes about how these aren’t the X-Men hes
used to!
Can’t wait for that.
The mcu has historically worked best when it brings in new elements like the guardians
or Shang chi, not so much when it is doing another version of something we’ve already
had on the big screen like spider-man.
It should endeavour to keep making more shang-chi's and worry less about redoing a superhero team
we’ve already had over
the movies from.