Like any good pairing, a duo should have a little bit of adversity and conflict between them: Good and Evil, Yin and Yang, Peanut Butter and Jelly. The X-Men film series (and the comic books too, of course) have this as well, in the form of the excellent “frenemies” pairing of Professor X and Magneto, brought to life on film by Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, respectively.
But as the film series progressed, the powers-that-be realized that they can’t base every film off the core of these two characters and their interactions with each other. Through ‘X-Men,’ ‘X2: X-Men United,’ ‘X-Men: The Last Stand,’ ‘X-Men: First Class,’ ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ and ‘X-Men: Apocalypse,’ the common thread has been these two characters, Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr, and their sometimes-tenuous bond in mutant brotherhood.
Another bond of the six films mentioned above? Producer Lauren Shuler Donner has worked on each of them. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, she noted what has come before, and what’s best for the X-series moving forward. Shuler Donner was emphatic in her remarks:
“We cannot, once again, explore the Erik/Charles dynamic. [The idea of stories without this is] both liberating and makes me nervous—it’s mostly liberating. [Charles and Erik were] “always essential… [but] there are other stories to tell.”
This completely makes sense, of course, and the timing definitely feels right; the next X-Men film is rumored to focus around the Dark Phoenix storyline, and James McAvoy has already been confirmed to return to play the “younger” version of Stewart’s Professor X – but Michael Fassbender, who portrays the younger counterpart of Magneto, is not officially on board as of yet. McAvoy will also appear in the ‘New Mutants’ film, which – along with the successes of solo X-universe-films like ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Logan,’ does seem to signal a bit of a changing of the guard in terms of character focus in the series.
How would you feel about future ‘X-Men’ films without Prof. X and Magneto?
Tony Schaab wonders who would win in an epic, Gladiator-style fight between the Grumpy Cat and the “This is Fine” Dog – an animal-heavy meme battle for the ages! A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.