Did you know that ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ could have even been worse than it was by killing off Ian McKellen’s (‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug‘,’Apt Pupil’) character of Magneto? When Bryan Singer (‘X-Men’,’X2′) left the ‘X-Men’ franchise to direct the flop called ‘Superman Returns’, he proved that not only could he not do a DC movie justice but that Brett Ratner (‘Rush Hour’,’Red Dragon’) could single handedly ruin what had been shaping up to be an amazing ‘X-Men’ trilogy. The series ended on such a sour note that the studio decided to reboot it with ‘X-Men: First Class‘! (OK, that’s not why ‘First Class’ happened but I have a feeling a few of you were thinking that could have been the case.)
Spoilers Ahead! (Yes, the film came out in 2006 but it still has to be said.)
On top of all of the other problems with the film, one of the key ones is that Famke Janssen’s (‘Hemlock Grove‘,‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’) Jean Grey killed Patrick Stewart’s Professor X while she was the Dark Phoenix. It turns out according to these original storyboards it really was much worse, as she also killed off Magneto before Wolverine had a chance to take her out. On top of that, it looks as if the final fight had a much different setting and took place in Washington DC instead of Alcatraz Island.
I didn’t think it was possible, but this have actually made me dislike the movie even more than I already had. After such a great introduction to the franchise this single film had almost ruined it. Thankfully Singer is back in control and will be directing ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ and it’s follow-up of ‘X-Men: Apocalypse‘ which will most likely retcon a few changes from the third film so we can all pretend it didn’t exist.
So what do you think about how they they originally planned to deal with Magneto in the series? Would killing him off hurt the franchise even more than the movie already had or would it have been better to just stop things there for a true reboot?
Source: Comic Book Movie
