Since Marvel Studios started making movies, True Believers have been disappointed time and time again when they’re reminded that the House of Ideas doesn’t have the film rights to all of their characters anymore. Though things seemed to have worked out with Spider-Man, Fox still has the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, which means that some of the most iconic Marvel stories can’t really be done as they were originally written. However, both sides seem to be okay with this since the Russos are moving full speed ahead with ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and Hugh Jackman teased ‘Old Man Logan’ as his final film as Wolverine. And now comic writer and Fox consultant Mark Millar weighs in on how the storyline can be adapted without key members of the Marvel Universe.
In a recent interview with IGN, Millar addressed how ‘Old Man Logan’ can proceed without characters like Hawkeye, Hulk, the Red Skull, or Spider-Man. His solution essentially involved replacing the Avengers with suitable X-Men counterpart:
“They’re not important to the story. The way I worked that thing is I actually structured it as, I broke it down mechanically – I figured out going from this part of America to that part of America and what he would encounter along the way, and then I added in the adversities later.
Basically Wolverine doing The Road movie is the important thing and he has a friend [a blind Hawkeye] with him. But that friend could be Cyclops and he could be blind by the fact that his ruby-quartz visor is broken and he has to keep his eyes closed the whole time and everything, but still insists on driving the car they’re crossing America with. There’s lots of stuff. Instead of the Hulk, you could have the Blob or something.”
Millar’s approach actually works pretty well, but this isn’t really the first time that Fox has taken this route with the X-Men. Basically every film involving Marvel’s mutants have been modified from its original form and they’ve still found some kind of success (not including the atrocity that was ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’). And at the end of the day, as the writer himself points out, it’s more important that the feeling of the story is conveyed rather than every single detail carry over from the comic:
“Honestly, the continuity stuff is the most boring side of it. I kind of like it, keeping it in the X-Men universe a little, too, because comic fans are different from the mainstream world. I know this stuff backwards because I’ve lived my whole life loving this stuff, but most people don’t know the entire minutia and everything so I think keeping it simplified and keeping it generally X-Men universe is a smarter thing to do.”
As a fan of “the continuity stuff,” I disagree with Millar about it being boring, but I can also concede to the fact that the X-Men movies have still been pretty good for the most part despite all the changes and not actually being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And at the end of the day, old versions of Cyclops and Wolverine traveling across the country could make for an interesting movie.
What do you think about Mark Millar’s comments about ‘Old Man Logan’? Do you think that Fox can find success with a live action adaptation featuring these changes? Let us know in the comments below.
