The X-Men are easily one of the biggest and most popular superhero teams around. Their popularity helped usher comic book superheroes into the mainstream, especially at the box office. The Fox X-Men movies starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, and Halle Berry made a huge impact on superhero media in the early 2000s, and even helped pave the way for how they’re seen now and how much they currently rule the box office.
Because of this, it’s exciting that these versions of the characters are still being used in projects like Deadpool & Wolverine and Avengers: Doomsday. That being said, despite them still being used in a variety of movies, it’s time for a new X-Men cast instead.
It’s cool to see these fantastic actors reprise their iconic roles all these years later, but it’s been almost three decades. Despite what Deadpool said, maybe we shouldn’t have a 90-year old playing Wolverine. It’s time some of these folks take a step back from being action heroes.
It appears the Fox version of the X-Men may be the primary version used in the MCU. If not, they’ll at least have a big presence in some major movies. This makes it feel like there’s now twenty six years of movie homework to complete to get the characters and their stories. Rather than being introduced to someone new, we’re now tasked with paying attention to media with a questionable canon dating back to 2000.
We’ve also said goodbye to these characters several times now. Some have been killed off in a handful of projects while others have found other satisfying conclusions to their arcs. Continuing to bring them back will only detract from how meaningful those previous endings are.
Introducing a brand new cast will also provide an opportunity to tell new stories, fix old mistakes, make things feel more cohesive, and make everything more comic book accurate. Gone are the days of black leather suits, and the days of blue and yellow uniforms are here. At least they should be.
For the folks saying that no one else can fill these roles, why not? There have been a handful of Batman and Spider-Man actors. Christopher Reeve was once the definitive Superman, but others like Henry Cavill and David Corenswet have come along. There’s no rule stating that no one can ever fill the shoes of Wolverine or Storm or Magneto.
Forcing the old actors into this new universe will only hold back the storytelling. We need new faces for brand new stories.
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