WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: The X-MEN Movie Series

X-Men (2000)

>James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Richard Donner, Tim Burton, Robert Rodriguez, Danny Boyle, John McTiernan, Irvin Kershner, Stephen Hopkins and Joel Schumacher were approached to direct the movie before Bryan Singer was hired.

>Early drafts featured Beast, Pyro and the Blob, who were removed due to budget restraints.

>Russell Crowe, Keannu Reeves, Gary Sinise, Edward Norton, Kiefer Sutherland, Aaron Eckhart and Viggo Mortensen were approached for Wolverine before Dougray Scott was cast. He later dropped out and was replaced by Hugh Jackman.

>Thomas Jane was approached for Cyclops before James Caviezel was cast. He later dropped out and was replaced by James Marsden. Edward Burns and D.B. Sweeney also auditioned.

>Julianne Moore, Maria Bello, Peta Wilson and Lucy Lawless were approached for Jean Grey before Famke Janssen was cast.

>Angela Bassett and Jada Pinkett-Smith were approached for Storm before Halle Berry was cast.

>Natalie Portman, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rachel Leigh Cook, Christina Ricci and Katherine Isabelle were approached for Rogue before Anna Paquin was cast.

>Jeri Ryan auditioned for the role of Mystique before Rebecca Romjin was cast.

>Triple H auditioned for the role of Sabretooth before Tyler Mane was cast.

>Terence Stamp and Christopher Lee were approached for Magneto before Ian McKellen was cast.

>The movie had a troubled production, fraught with script rewrites and budget restraints. Fox postponed the release from Christmas 1999 to July 2000 and the rescheduled shooting led to several several actors and crew members dropping out due to scheduling conflicts.

>Fox was skeptical of the movie's potential and enforced several last-minute cuts to shorten the running time. Nevertheless, Singer believed something should be set up to explore in potential future installments and instructed Famke Janssen to react to being exposed to Magneto's machine to set up her transformation into the Phoenix.

Other urls found in this thread:

screenrant.com/x-men-dark-phoenix-intergalactic/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-23#Publication_history
twitter.com/AnonBabble

X2: X-Men United (2003)

>Fox originally wanted the movie to center around the Legacy Virus.

>In early drafts, Sabretooth and Toad would return as William Stryker's brainwashed enforcers alongside Archangel, who would have razor-sharp Adamantium wings. Stryker would also unleash a prototype Sentinel during the final battle, but all these concepts were scrapped due to budget restraints.

>In early drafts, Stryker's enforcer is Anne Reynolds, a human loyal to his cause. When Sabretooth, Toad and Archangel were removed, she was made into Lady Deathstrike to inject more action in the third act of the movie.

>In early drafts, Dark Cerebro would cause mutants across the globe to lose control of their powers, but this was scrapped due to budget issues. There were planned cameos for Beast, becoming blue and furry while his colleagues watched in horror; and Gambit, accidentally caused a deck of cards to explode at a bar in New Orleans. Steve Bacic and Jamie Bamford were lined up to play them before the scenes were cut.

>Following her Oscar win, Halle Berry demanded a larger role, and the script was revised to make her the pilot of the X-Jet and later further revised to include a romantic subplot with Nightcrawler.

>Anthony Hopkins was approached for William Stryker before Brian Cox was cast.

>Steve Buscemi was approached for Nightcrawler, but declined. Neil Patrick Harris and Etham Embry auditioned before Alan Cumming was cast.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

>Matthew Vaughn was hired to direct the movie after Bryan Singer dropped out to direct SUPERMAN RETURNS, but also dropped out due to production troubles. Joss Whedon and Alex Proyas were approached before Brett Ratner was hired.

>The movie was planned as an adaptation of "The Dark Phoenix Saga", but the mutant cure storyline was added at the behest of producer Tom Rothman, who disliked the more fantastical aspects of the X-Men lore such as the Dark Phoenix.

>In early drafts, Alcatraz Island is a mutant prison that Magneto raids to recruit his army to attack the White House in Washington, D.C., where the final battle occurs. During the mass breakout, the Phoenix is targeted by the military and ends up leveling the entire city of San Francisco.

>Alan Cummings was approached to return as Nightcrawler, but declined due to the character's minimal role.

>Maggie Grace was hired to play Kitty Pryde, but dropped out and was replaced by Ellen Page. Eliza Dushku and Summer Glau also auditioned.

>Mike Vogel and Nick Stahl auditioned for Angel before Ben Foster was hired.

>Fox rushed the movie into production, leading to scheduling conflicts with several actors including James Marsden, Rebecca Romjin and Anna Paquin, whose characters had to be hastily written off.

>The movie had a troubled production with fraught with scheduling issues and constant rewrites, to the point Fox decided to end the mainline X-MEN movies and focus on spin-offs from then on.

>James Cameron
Thank god.
We could have ended up with a misogynistic X-Men movie.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

>Zack Snyder and Len Wiseman were approached to direct the movie before Gavin Hood was hired.

>Early drafts featured a more character-driven, R-rated story, which was revised to scale down the violence to PG-13 and open up spin-off possibilites for Deadpool, Gambit and Cyclops, who were all absent from the original treatment.

>In early drafts, Weapon XI is an army of clones of Sabretooth artifically infused with Wolverine's healing factor so they can survive the Adamantium bonding procedure. Wolverine decapitates Sabretooth and slaughter his clones, but one of them escapes and goes on to become the Sabretooth that is later recruited by Magneto and featured in X-MEN.

>In later drafts, Weapon XI was Garrison Kane, a human operative from Team X, but Rothman decided to merge the character with Deadpool due to Deadpool's popularity. Scott Adkins was originally cast as Kane, and when the characters were merged, Ryan Reynolds provided close-up shots of Weapon XI in last-minute reshoots, while Adkins' fight scenes and faraway shots were kept, and he was credited as Reynolds' stuntman.

>Gerard Butler was approached to play Sabretooth, but declined. Liev Schreiber was originally approached to play William Stryker, but Jackman insisted that he should be cast as Sabretooth instead. Michael C. Hall was then approached for Stryker before Danny Huston was cast.

>Michelle Monaghan was originally cast as Silverfox, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and replaced by Lynn Collins.

>Hood had a notoriously contentious relationship with Rothman due to Rothman's executive meddling, and nearly dropped out of production after Rothman secretly rebuilt and recolored the Weapon X sets behind his back for make them brighter and cleaner.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

>Bryan Singer was approached to return, but declined due to scheduling conflicts, and Matthew Vaughn was hired instead.

>Early drafts featured Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm and Beast as the X-Men.

>Early drafts featured a love triangle between Xavier, Magneto and Moira McTaggert that would be the tipping point of their schism.

>Early drafts featured Sunspot as a member of the Hellfire Club.

>Amber Heard auditioned for Mystique before Jennifer Lawrence was cast.

>Rosamund Pike auditioned for Moira McTaggert before Rose Byrne was cast.

>Benjamin Walker was originally cast as Beast, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Taylor Lautner was approached before Nicholas Hoult was cast.

>Alice Eve was originally cast as Emma Frost, but dropped out due to creative differences and was replaced by January Jones.

>Bryan Cranston and Colin Firth were approached to play Sebastian Shaw before Kevin Bacon was cast.

The Wolverine (2013)

>Darren Aronofsky was originally slated to write and direct the movie, but dropped out due to creative differences and was replaced by James Mangold.

>Aronofsky's script was R-rated and set in 1987, featuring Logan being recruited by a secret order of ninjas, The Hand, to become an enforcer for the Yashida Crime Family in Japan. Logan falls in love with Mariko Yashida, daughter of mobster Shingen Yashida, and must fight for her love. Other characters included Yukio, Logan's bodyguard and lover; Zen, Logan's master in the Hand; Elvis, an American mobster and Shingen's rival; Harada, Shingen's illegitimate son who craves for his father's approval; Viper, an assassin and Harada's lover; and corrupt Chief of Justice Noburo More, Mariko's fiance.

>Early drafts featured Rogue as Logan's companion, and Ichiro Yashida would be revealed to possess the same powers as her, with Logan being the only one capable of survive being touched by Yashida, but this storyline was eventually dropped.

>Jessica Biel was approached for Viper before Svetlana Khodchenkova was cast.

>There were plans for a sequel about Logan and Yukio going on an adventure in the island of Madripoor, but they were scrapped when X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was greenlit.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

>Matthew Vaughn was originally slated to direct, but dropped out and was replaced by Bryan Singer.

>The original draft of the script was set in 1963 and featured the X-Men racing against time to prevent the Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants from assassinating President John Kennedy for supressing mutants' roles in preventing the Cuban missile crisis.

>In early drafts, Jubilee is one of mutant refugees in the post-apocalyptic future.

>In early drafts, Wolverine, Xavier and Beast would recruit Juggernaut, a dim-witted former student of the Xavier's, to help them break Magneto out of the Pentagon. He was later replaced by Quicksilver. Josh Helman was originally hired to play the Juggernaut. When the character was replaced with Quicksilver, Helman was instead cast as William Stryker.

>Early drafts included a post-credits scene where a meteorite crash-lands outside Magneto's hideout in Mexico and Apocalypse emerges from the crater and possesses Magneto.

>An entire subplot about rescuing Rogue from the X-Mansion overrun by Sentinels so she can replace Kitty as Wolverine's tether to the future was cut and later reintegrated to the movie in the "Rogue Cut".

Deadpool (2016)

>In early drafts, Wade becomes a mercenary after escaping from the Workshop and purely wa

>Early drafts featured Patch as the bar owner, while Weasel is a weapons dealer and Wade's handler. Weasel was made into a bar owner in further revisions.

>Early drafts featured Cannonball as Colossus's apprentice in the X-Men. He was replaced by Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

>Early drafts featured Garrison Kane, Wyre and Sluggo as Ajax's enforcers. They were replaced by Angel Dust.

>Early drafts featured Dr. Emrys Killbrew, the mad scientist who recruits Wade into the Workshop and flees the country upon learning Deadpool is coming after him to continue his research abroad.

>Early drafts featured a massive gunfight during the final battle, but the budget didn't allow him, but the idea was referenced when Deadpool forgets his bag of guns in the cab.

>Olivia Munn was approached to play Vanessa Carslyle, but declined in favor of playing Psylocke in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE and Morena Baccarin was cast.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

>Early drafts featured Wolverine and Mystique working together to rescue endangered mutants, leading to Wolverine being recruited by the X-Men as a drill sergeant for the young mutants.

>Early drafts featured Professor X becoming the fouth Horseman after being corrupted by Apocalypse, but the concept was scrapped and Pyslocke was added.

>Taron Egerton was offered the role of Cyclops, but declined. Jamie Blackley, Charlie Rowe, Timothee Chalamet and Ben Hardy auditioned before Tye Sheridan was cast. Hardy was later cast as Archangel.

>Chloe Moretz, Hailee Steinfeld and Elle Fanning auditioned for Jean Grey before Sophie Turner was cast.

>Amber Stevens and Zendaya Coleman auditioned for Storm before Alexandra Shipp was cast.

>Tom Hardy and Idris Elba were approached for Apocalypse before Oscar Isaac was cast.

>Although the Weapon X segment were always part of the movie, Wolverine's breakout was added in reshoots.

>The Quicksilver rescue segment was mapped out with Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in mind, but Fox couldn't secure the rights to include the song in the movie.

Logan (2017)

>There were plans to include Liev Schreiber's Sabretooth, who would be running an underground casino in Oklahoma City. Logan would seek him for help protecting Laura, but the idea was eventually scrapped.

>There were plans to include Mister Sinister as the mastermind behind Laura's creation and the Legacy Virus, but the idea was scrapped to keep the movie self-contained and grounded in reality.

>In early drafts, Logan and Xavier's goal is to help Laura reach an "underground railroad" for mutants which would include former members of the X-Men, with Kitty Pryde as their leader, but the idea was scrapped to keep the movie self-contained and focused on Logan and Xavier.

>Early drafts featured a flashback detailing what happened to the X-Men during Xavier's breakdown, but this was scrapped as James Mangold felt it was circumstances behind the incident were better left to the imagination.

I don't give a fuck about any of this as long as "What would you prefer, yellow spandex" was never uttered. I have no reason to read any of it if it isn't just as much wolverine but always in yellow.

Otherwise what we got was good enough. Just needed yellow.

I remember when comic book nerds loved the "yellow spandex" joke.

>In early drafts, Wade becomes a mercenary after escaping from the Workshop and purely wa

And purely what?

>Amber Heard auditioned for Mystique before Jennifer Lawrence was cast.

Fuck.

>Chloe Moretz
>Elle Fanning
>Tom Hardy
>Idris Elba
did you make this up

Yes.

>Amber Heard auditioned for Mystique before Jennifer Lawrence was cast

This really is the darkest timeline.

Cameron is an asshole, but his female characters tend to be strong and well-written.

I mean, you say that because of Ripley, but aside from that his women aren't great. Rose from Titanic and every woman from Avatar are prime examples.

>Zack Snyder could've taken credit for this shit
Worst timeline

>The Hand
No one noticed this?

...

...

What should Phoenix look like in the next movie?

...

>Amber Heard as Mystique
>Alice Eve as Emma Frost
GGGGOOOODDDDD DDDDAAAMMNNN IT

Sarah Connor?

Rose aint bad

I can imagine that was before we had over a decade of superhero adaptations that were deathly afraid of embracing what they were

>Tom Rothman
Isn't that the guy who vetoed Sentinels being in the first film because he thought no one would go see a film with giant robots in it?

the yellow spandex never made sense for Wolverine as a character

That's why ultimate wolverine is best wolverine.

He's also the guy who thought a Deadpool movie would bomb. He's made so many bad decisions that Fox kicked him out around the time Deadpool came out and made 800 mil. He's been working with Sony since then, which only reinforces my belief that studio is run by literal, not metaphorical, but actual retards.

And this is why Mangold is the greatest.

>Caliban isn't even there

fuck that poster

A vast majority of this is horrifying.

It's also pretty fucking stupid how they wanted these movies to lead to spinoffs but all that's happening is Deadpool 2 and maybe new mutants which apparently is going to be a horror genre movie?

>Steve Buscemi was approached for Nightcrawler
golly gee

He was also approached for Hank Pym.

Sarah Conner is his best example

Ripley was Ridley Scott tho

You got Deadpool 2, new mutants, gambit, xforce in prouction.
Then you have alpha flight, exiles, and x-23 being discussed

Just Ripley and Connor. And those weren't because of Cameron. Not that the man isn't a film legend, but he's not the reason his movies had strong female leads.

We could have had a super hot Mystique played by a real actor

Would have been so much better

>snake Mystique with slightly visible nipples

holy shit

>Early drafts featured a more character-driven, R-rated story,
>and nearly dropped out of production after Rothman secretly rebuilt and recolored the Weapon X sets behind his back for make them brighter and cleaner.

I fucking knew this shit was the case

No mention of Glenn "Spoopy manlet" Danzig for Wolverine?

yeah fuck explanations and having actual intimidating villains in an R-Rated movie

fuck all that shit amirite

He was never really considered.

>>Alice Eve was originally cast as Emma Frost, but dropped out due to creative differences
Id like to know the details about this, I doubt she was against the sex appeal because she has gotten naked before & had blatently gratuitous sex appeal scenes in plenty of stuff.
I bet she didn't like Emma being a glorified secretary to Bacon.

>John McTiernan
This should have fucking happened and maybe he could have stayed out of Jail, fucking great director.

>but the mutant cure storyline was added at the behest of producer Tom Rothman, who disliked the more fantastical aspects of the X-Men lore such as the Dark Phoenix.
Fuck this mother fucker & fuck them for doing it AGAIN!
>“[We must] find a way to ground it so it’s not too intergalactic.”
screenrant.com/x-men-dark-phoenix-intergalactic/

What fucking alternate earth does this fucker live on that making it intergalactic is considered a bad creative move when Guardians is popular as fuck?

I said this already but Simon and writers are the only reason Phoenix was even in X3.
>What fucking alternate earth does this fucker live on that making it intergalactic is considered a bad creative move when Guardians is popular as fuck?

Doesn't the Pheonix....come to earth?

My bad for quoting you mate

>Sinister
>intimidating

He was literally designed as what a kid would think is scary, even the dumb name

> We will never have a hard R, hard faithful Zach Snyder Wolverine origin movie with periodically naked Michelle Monaghan or Lynn Collins..
Why Live?

This is the only one that has positive changes. I completely agree with the logic that led to these decisions.

the only fuckers with any desire to see these through are ryan reynolds for deadpool and x-force, and motherfucking Kelsey Grammar even though the movies you mentioned probably will not showcase beast. exiles features blink from the age of apocalypse or phalanx covenant. thunderbird was an apocalypse character. nocturne is from an alternate reality. the origin stories for these characters are disparate.

x-23?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-23#Publication_history

"X-23 was created by Craig Kyle. He revealed that X-23 was his attempt to make a Wolverine to "connect more to the younger kids", as while X-Men: Evolution was a reinvention of the X-Men making the characters teenagers, "Wolverine was one of the old, grizzled guys". The characterization went for the opposite of Wolverine, where instead of a man "older than we know" with no memory of his past and the life that he lost, X-23 was a young girl "shackled to the murders she’s committed" whose entire life revolved around the project that made her a killer. Kyle added that the character is "Pinocchio for Marvel Comics, she's a samurai sword trying to become a real little girl".

that's not a good start. i really hope an x-23 movie would not end up like wolverine movies. if they try to just make wolverine scenarios and insert her in to them it's going to be very bad except in a team framework.

an animated age of apocalypse series for mature audiences should be produced and a deathlok movie because by that time maybe they'll have a replacement for wolverine or x-23 can take wolverine's place for an uncanny x-force movie. maybe then kelsey grammar could be dark beast as both a voice actor and an actor for UXF

Yeah, no, I'm actually ok with that.

not only did we not get something like this we also got fucking origins wolverine
darkest timeline

that movie was an incredible show of feminists being self deprecating

Don't forget about Dark Phoenix

They should just do a fucking reboot, I don't buy her as Jean at all

I would like to see all off those. What's wrong with you?

Sucker Punch has no relevance here.
Wolverine isn't a character he would feel the need to change or make Darker like Clark or Bruce, he would be in his element and such wouldn't stir controversy.

>what's wrong with you

nothing. i just highly doubt that they'll be executed well. you gotta think, when they're making these movies, do you imagine that they're using normie focus groups or are the asking comic book fans?

Yeah I meant spin offs. I hope younger Jean isn't a better actor than her

please, no fucking reboots. fucking please. do jean and cyclops in the future instead

Because they don't know how to make all these franchises work. We could have had wolverine, deadpool, new mutants and whatever other spin offs along side x-men movies. Each director either has a big ego about what they want or just tries to hide from the continuity. They need someone like Fiege in charge of the universe and over seeing projects. We're getting new mutants, deadpool 2 and x-men 7 next year....I have no hope that any of them will be even remotely connected.

Gambit is obviously going to be accurate because there is no other way.
I don't think normies know about alpha flight and x force my man.

I am so fucking angry that they still haven't learned their lesson from Apocalypse, ENOUGH WITH MAGNETO & FUCKING MYSTIQUE!
Her arc was done in DOFP, leave it the fuck alone, fans have been demanding a focus on Scott & Jean for nearly 2 decades.

they need to put kelsey grammar in the upcoming movies somewhere. he WANTS to be there as beast, let him take on the role

>have no hope that any of them will be even remotely connected.
Unless it's Sauron Sunspots dad is going to be in Dark Pheonix. Can't think of any other Brazilian x character.

yeah i read the 4 part miniseries of gambit and it was about thieves guilds in new orleans.

>it's going to be accurate because there's no other way

don't assume.

isn't Teon brazilian?

Ukranian. He seems like a cuck

Pretty much. She expected a bigger role.

>he would be in his element
Sucker Punch was his original idea, how much more comfortable can he be?

They're the X-Men, not the Guardians of the Galaxy. Their core conflict is grounded. Going full interstellar all of a sudden would be jarring. We're still getting the Shi'ar and the duel against the Imperial Guard, so they're not completely eschewing the interstellar parts of the story.

Hope has him under her control

Like I said Sucker Punch has no relevance here.
His directing competence had nothing to do with SP's failure it was that the base concept was too contradictory.
He wanted to make a sexy fantasy anime homage, but at the same time make a dark honest tale of women being abused & overcoming, both of these are perfectly acceptable ideas, the issue is they don't work together, the 2nd thing makes the 2st thing feel exploitative.
Also the majority of the action being in dreams/delusions makes it all have no emotional weight.

>Shiar
>Brood
>Phalanx
>Apocalypse has alien tech
>Stryfe raise by Apocalypse
>Gauntlet is an Inhuman who worked for Apocalypse
>Phoenix is sum of all life in the universe

their core conflict being only on earth is debatable

>grounded in reality.
what the fuck are producers problems with making things fantastic

Half assed cyborgs and child soldiers with abilities are apparently believable but a mad scientist obsessed with cloning and wiping out mutants is a bit much?

weren't the X-men literally based in a hell dimension for a while

>the only fuckers with any desire to see these through are ryan reynolds for deadpool and x-force,

You are both a fucking idiot and a casual. Tom Rothman pls go

>cuts off half of a sentence

cool story bro

>>Amber Heard auditioned for Mystique before Jennifer Lawrence was cast.
so...how long have I been living in shit timeline
can I jump to the good one??
how?

>delicious blue naked amber heard
fuck, I'm wet

>grounded in reality

this was apparently an issue many times over in the franchise from a production standpoint

was it simply a half assed excuse to save on costs or do studio people legit believe if something is too fantastic than people won't want to see it?

Because Lord of the Rings came out at around the same time as alot of this and would beg to differ

>>Aronofsky's script was R-rated and set in 1987, featuring Logan being recruited by a secret order of ninjas, The Hand, to become an enforcer for the Yashida Crime Family in Japan. Logan falls in love with Mariko Yashida, daughter of mobster Shingen Yashida, and must fight for her love. Other characters included Yukio, Logan's bodyguard and lover; Zen, Logan's master in the Hand; Elvis, an American mobster and Shingen's rival; Harada, Shingen's illegitimate son who craves for his father's approval; Viper, an assassin and Harada's lover; and corrupt Chief of Justice Noburo More, Mariko's fiance.
would have been more interesting than what we got desu

I'm talking about the movies.

It's called "context".

Lord of the Rings was pretty fantastic because it was its context but if alien robots showed up on the third act of Return of the King to reclaim the One Ring it'd still be jarring and off-tone.

>>>The Quicksilver rescue segment was mapped out with Michael Jackson's "Beat It" in mind, but Fox couldn't secure the rights to include the song in the movie.
lmao, what?
the executors of MJ's estate have been total moneygrabbers, I'm surprised they couldn't get the rights to Beat It
>>>Early drafts featured Wolverine and Mystique working together to rescue endangered mutants, leading to Wolverine being recruited by the X-Men as a drill sergeant for the young mutants.
>>Early drafts featured Professor X becoming the fouth Horseman after being corrupted by Apocalypse, but the concept was scrapped and Pyslocke was added.
TRASH, ALL TRASH
Mangold really did create cape-kino
goddamn, "Logan"(2017) was too based for this world

and guardians of the galaxy did very well

Because that was the most idiotic part of an all-around idiotic post.

>lord of the rings and aliens
>x-men and aliens

>Alien Robots
perhaps it's a bit much, but DoFP clearly proved that people have no problem with home grown giant earth robots

Sentinels are an integral part of the franchise, a literal personification of all the hate the X-Men fight against, and it is criminal it took 6 movies for them to show up

you sound upset about something.

Guardians hadn't happened yet, and it was still fairly unproven that something like it could be successful.

what movie is the gif from, and whos ass is that

but X-23 is 9 years old in the future....how are they going to intergrate her into any other X-films?

The idea that no one but Ryan Reynolds wants an X-Force movie is stupid. That's pretty obviously what I'm implying.

time travel would be the easiest explanation, and she acts all bitchy because she knows the x-men will die unless she is razor focused on keeping them alive