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Starting All Over Again With an X-Men: First Class Franchise

by Alex Billington
April 15, 2009
Source: Comics Continuum

So with X-Men Origins: Wolverine set to kick off the summer in a few weeks, you'd expect Fox or Marvel to actually want to continue the X-Men series. We've heard of an X-Men Origins: Magneto for a while now, but that project seems to have slowly disappeared into development hell. So what's next? If Wolverine is as big as we're all hearing, it'll be proof to Hollywood that the X-Men aren't dead yet. How about an X-Men 4? Eric Lehnsherr still had his powers at the end, right? Nope, instead it's looking like X-Men: First Class may be the new franchise. Yep, we're talking about kids, young mutants, as in a prequel, not a sequel.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who is responsible for all three of the original X-Men movies and Constantine and the upcoming Wolverine, said on Fox Movie Channel's "Life After Film School" (via Comics Continuum) that X-Men: First Class is in the works. "It is the first class of Xavier's school, way back when, so it's young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that'll be really fun," Donner said. "I think (the plan) is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world." She added that, "hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up."

Didn't we already follow them when they were grown up? And at least got two great movies out of it? So why go back and potentially ruin the X-Men universe (or did Brett Ratner already do that)? This is all starting to sound a bit like Star Wars, and we know what happened when George Lucas tried to tell the origin story to that trilogy. In November we reported that Fox was moving forward with X-Men: First Class with "Gossip Girl" and "The O.C." writer Josh Schwartz penning the first draft of the screenplay. If all of this is indeed true, then I'm officially worried for the future of X-Men. I really hope Fox doesn't screw this up, too.

Filed under Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

Dave Lister, J.M.C.

There's no doubt that they'll screw this up very badly. I'm already, on the fence, with the Wolverine film; if they go this teenage soap opera route, I will never see another X-Men film.
Smiffy1

Christ this is sounding like Dawson's Creek with X-men. I love the X-men but Fox are seriously turning everything they touch into crap.
David

i certainly hope they don't screw it up. but going back in time with another origins story?
captain subtext

Josh Schwartz is brilliant! I never really cared about the X-Men Movies though.
Nikko

I think it's a good idea for them to start things over and do things right. The X-Men movies have hardly been X-Men movies; they've all been Wolverine movies with the other characters thrown in. For crying out Xavier's most loyal and best student, Cyclops, was a wimp in the first movie, missing in the second movie, and killed thirty minutes into the third movie. The only purpose Jean Grey served was to create a crappy love triangle. Beast and Angel didn't even show up until the third movies properly.. let's face it, the best thing that could happen to the X-Men movies is to start over WITHOUT Wolverine to do things right. Though i'm in agreement this teenage drama crap may do more harm than good in the end.. look at the cartoon from the early 2000's.. X-Men Evolution or whatever.. awful stuff. So while I think rebooting is a great idea because it's always just been Wolverine-Men, this teenage stuff may be the opposite of what we need for a restart/reboot/prequel.
Derek

I prefer this over a spin off. These are the X-Men I actually care about.
The Original Zombie

I'm in agreement with 5 and 6. The original five and Xaiver are the ones I want to see, and done right. This Wolverine junk going around in the movies and current crop of cartoons has got to go. Wolverine is a side character when it comes to the X-Men at best. While he's a great character and mutant, he's hardly that much better than the rest of the X-Men that he needs to be featured on everything in place of the true leader, Cyclops, or other characters like Angel, Beast, or Iceman. Bring on the First Class!
jh

people might not want to see an x-men film without wolverine
SlashBeast

A reboot may be a good idea. I agree that the three X-Men movies should have just been titled "Wolverine" because apparently Singer forgot that the X-Men are a GROUP. I was almost appalled at how Wolverine dominated the screen time and equally important characters were thrown to the sidelines. Restarting may help the X-Men franchise.
Nikko

I'm glad to see other people share how I feel about this subject! People would be downright stupid to skip on an X-Men reboot simply because Wolverine won't be involved. Didn't you all get enough of him in his first four movies? How about giving the rest of the X-Men a shot at the limelight, hm? Perhaps give them a chance to win you over like Wolverine has, since he's for some reason magically the main character of the group now?
RPD

The New Mutants >> the original X-Men...
zetsu

i'm up for this as long as they keep it as the original team(cyclops,marvel girl aka jean grey,angel,ice-man & the beast).see the x-men battle some classic villains(magneto & the brotherhood of evil,the juggernaunt & the sentinels)then it could lead up to the new x-men(just add wolverine,storm,nightcrawler,thunderbird,banshee,sunfire & colouss)the villains you could see would be great (the hellfire club,the phoenix story done properly,the sentinels & maybe even do the old x- men vs the new x-men)then the most talked about dream comic book film ever x-men vs avengers crossover film,fucking awesome.
Darunia

Fuck fox. Dragon Ball is horrible. Wolverine Origins is horrible. Seriously, these retards need to hit the brakes.
NadaNuff

If this is a prequel instead of a reboot, it's A) too soon, and B) won't make sense, since Angel was "discovered" in X3 when he was supposed to be an original. Not to mention they screwed up the ages horribly. Since it's the First Class, they should all be about the same age. Yet in X3, Beast was played by Kelsey Grammar, while Angel looked all of fifteen years old. A prequel to the current crop of X-Men movies is tough to imagine. I'm onboard for the Magneto movie, but after that they should leave the X-Men alone for several years.
S

Fuck this prequel noise. I think they should continue with the X-Men as is and do more of an Astonishing X-Men take on things. You never actually see Cyclops die in the third movie so you could still easily bring him back. Throw something out about Jean's good side saved him or whatever. Maybe transported him to China. While Xavier is out of the picture you could bring in Emma Frost (though I'm not sure how they handled her character in Wolverine) as the head of the school. Cyclops should come back as a stronger character and the leader of the team. You could then bring in Nitecrawler, Angel, and even Gambit into the movie. I think as a bad guy Magneto is kinda played out. I want to see Sentinals, Mr. Sinister and fucking Apocalypse. Hell, make Omega Red the bad guy!
Egh Egh

Why?! Why Fox you guys ruin every comic book film just give it up....
http://www.galaxykid.net Johnny Neat

Please STOP! STOP right now! Forget this ever graced the desk of some money hungry idea raping joke of an executive/producer. FOX is trash and this sounds like trash. Yeah I'm upset, so what? I'm a person who thinks these ideas should be treated with kid gloves and not watered down for a quick buck.
9mm

Not for nothing, but the original X-Men: First Class miniseries was good. Entertaining, and a good break from the retardedry that the main titles have become.
DoomCanoe

oh this is bull shit. so far they have portrayed almost every iconic mutant wrong in all the film. why keep it up? why not just start over and read one of the fucking COMIC BOOKS for once!
teyhtr

As long as Wolverine isn't in it (which I assume he won't be), I'm all for it regardless of my hatred for FOX and. I'm willing to give this one a shot but not expecting much.
http://fantasticforum.allgames.com MayorYoung

This is a good idea as long as they do it right. It's a crime that we have had three going on four X-Men movies and have yet to see a Sentinel. X-Men First Class could be the forum for that.
Jmoney

Ummm, X3 already did screw up the franchise, so anything they do now can be any worse. Any sequel would suck because there would be no Cyclops, Jean, Rogue, or most importantly, no Prof. X. We'd be stuck with Halle Berry as Storm, and Iceman, and that's about it because they probably wouldn't put Wolverine back in this movie too. So I say all the power to them for making a prequel, at least we will get Prof. X back.
Jmoney

can't be any worse*
Fisherr

Why does Fox find the happiness and joy in ruining everything that is good.Give it up FOX the X-Men movies have been ruined enough already you could redeem the universe by First Class but dont ever think about rebooting the franchise,pathetic.
Lauren

You know what? Why don't they just go and redo X3? Yeah? Yeah.
http://www.myspace.com/apocalypze DJ Sid

They should move on to the Generation X story line if they want to appeal to a younger audience. Personally I'm not so excited about X-Men First Class. I guess I'll look forward to the next Iron Man and Avengers after the Wolverine movie.
Motu

Cyclops is crosseyed to hell in that image.
Farris

Honestly, even though Wolverine has been a bit played out, I don't want to see an X-Men movie without him. X-Men Origins: Magneto could be a great movie, if it was in the hands of another studio. Fox would just dumb down and cheapen his dark origin story and include a bunch of useless mutants in a climax battle at the end of the movie.
Hey Ya

They aren't talking about the original five. They want to use the same characters but keep it tied in with the movies already which wouldn't work since the Beast had no clue about them yet. This is not about the original X-men, this is X-men Evolution, that stupid cartoon that also screwed with the expanded universe. Whatever, it's in chaos now might as well make your own storyline.
WEAPON X

This should have involved Wolverine and a new batch of Mutant students. X-23, anyone??
Titanium

I rather see Charles Xavier and Cable lead the original New Mutants against Omega Red in Russia trying save Colossus from the dangerous situations.
Spider94

just make it a tv show series on fox network and ill be happy to see fox fail big time. oh i forgot they already failed . next thing there gonna come up with is a dragonball and xmen crossover movie i laugh like rofl if it happens or maybe daredevil vs goku and the fantastic four or wolverine:legend of the dragonball oh i got another idea, goku goes to fox studios and blows it up with kamehaa wave
Ajax

Why? Why is Fox doing this? They can't produce anything good. Leave the franchise alone, it;s Dead! Oh, Spider94, can Ryu come with Goku and bring his Aruwchen Fireball?
jasonmd2020

Will someone please tell me why any new X-men product isn't being done by Marvel Studios? Iron Man kicked ass. The Hulk was finally done justice on screen. X-men was created by Marvel, so why the hell aren't they at the helm for this? If FOX want's to profit off this property, they need to let MS handle it and just work a damn distribution deal.
Superchyle

WHOA some of u people are outright insane . ITS NOT A REBOOT AND THERE WONT BE ONE . It's a prequel . Theye didnt even mention Angel or Iceman ., They said Scott , Jean and Beast . That's the core team for that movie . Also for those crazies who are blasting the charcater of Wolverine u guys need to smarten up. Calling a side charcater in the X-men proves no knoledge of the X-men history . He has become easily the MOST popular x-men EVER no question . They tried a Cyclops solo comic and it did crap same as with Rogue and Gambit . Not only that Wolverine is now one of Marvel's top 3 characters . They got Spidey they got Hulk and they got Wolverine . Dont mention Cap cause he is only huge in one country sorry american's. Hell i bet the Wolverine movie makes more then that shitty Superman movie . Some people on here need to do some research . Also MS isint in charge of this caus Fox owns the rights thats what happens when u sell the rights to your franchises. Smarten up people
http://www.fourqueenscasinolasvegas.net FourQueensCasinoLV

This could be like batman begins, then I support the idea
mrmr

lame.
http://mariemaghak.xanga.com/ marie maghak

I can not imagine what the X-Men will be if Fox screens it up.
http://www.goldenrule.com/health/health-savings.shtml Hsa

I think they could pull it off but it all depends on the writers and what exactly their storyline will be.