The Plan for X-Men: First Class [Updated]

With a potential of 5 properties in development, and “First Class” to be the first we likely will see, it is important for this prequel to really set the stone for all that we know of the X-Men from film continuity to be tied together. The original X-Men team, in film lore, will likely be made up of Scott Summers, Emma Frost, Hank McCoy, Ororo Monroe, and Jean Grey. We’ve seen glimpses of Scott, Emma, and Jean as children and I would hope that Jean’s lack of control over her powers will be explored by both Xavier and the fascinated Eric Magnus. Among other things to expect from the film in terms of plot and potential characters would be the romance between Scott and Emma, with Jean to also be interested in Scott and the two psychic powers that are Jean and Emma having a feud over his affection (with Jean playing the semi-antagonist role here). There will have to be some creative way to explain Magnus’ going from ally to Xavier to X-Men’s greatest foe. While that will surely come in “Origins: Magneto,” Magnus’ tendency to have a darker and more cynical outlook will have to play a part in “First Class” – Perhaps with him even taking a liking to certain students who show aggression, such as Jean.

My hopes for what happens in the development of “The Brotherhood” may never come to pass, but I sincerely hope that the young Toad we see imprisoned on Three Mile Island in “Origins: Wolverine” is not among the group Xavier brings to the Mansion (I will explain why further down).

As far as release schedule? We’re dealing with five properties in “First Class,” “Origins: Magneto,” “Wolverine 2,” “Gambit spin-off,” and “X-Men 4.”

X-Men 4 could either be released prior to Gambit’s spin-off as a means of creating better buzz for the character. However, Gambit is second only to Wolverine in terms of popularity (and that is without him being featured as a character in any of the original franchise movies or as a team-member in any of the recent X-Men animated series) so he would hardly need the buzz as those who don’t already know him would still likely see the movie so long as it carries the “X-Men Origins” name in front of it. Regardless of which is released first, I do believe that both films should be filmed back-to-back though (or at least around the same time-frame) so that they could ideally be released within a year of each other.

I envision that “First Class” would be released first (and with rumors that they will be filming soon, that makes it to be so), followed by “X-Men Origins: Magneto” within the same year as “First Class.” Then, with “Wolverine 2” coming out in 2011, “Origins: Gambit” can release either later that summer or perhaps even in January of 2012, with “X-Men 4” releasing that summer. While that’s a lot of X-Men movies in a short time-span, any characters that have dual-roles will not be pressed for time as Xavier will not have a major role in Wolverine 2 or the Gambit spin-off, and Patrick Stewart will likely only have a major role in “First Class” with potential for a significant role in “Magneto” and “X-Men 4.” This allows for more than one work to be created at a time and it will mirror the gameplan being created by Marvel Films with their Avengers-related franchises and what’s in store for 2010/2011 while effectively tying in all spin-offs with the actual X-Men franchise.

As for my idea for the Gambit spin-off?

If Liev Schreiber has a 3-film deal, then the best way to go about this would be to have Victor Creed cameo in Wolverine 2 as somewhat of a lost man now that he no longer has his half-brother around. Logan and Victor had been through so much for so long and despite their differences at the end of Origins: Wolverine, they did work together once again to defeat the monstrosity that was Weapon XI. With Wolverine losing the memory that was Victor Creed and going off in search to find himself, Sabertooth will no longer be the main villain that Wolverine finds himself up against as Logan will head off for Japan. Perhaps Victor Creed’s de-evolution can be shown to be the resultof losing his brother and the one man who knew of all that had gone down over their origin story.

In Wolverine 2, there can be a scene or two that show Sabertooth in search of his brother, and maybe an interaction between the two and a short battle before Logan heads for Japan. Sabertooth retreats from this fight upon the realization that Wolverine no longer remembers him, psychologically putting Victor at loss. This is re-visited after the credits of Wolverine 2, which will then lead into “Origins: Gambit” as we will see a seemingly more vicious Creed, with growing hair, atop a victim - perhaps even have Creed over a dead animal that he’s eating - with Mr. Sinister approaching and gaining his attention. The de-evolution of Victor Creed will then be further explored of the Gambit spin-off, to the point where it wouldn’t be far-fetched to have the Sabertooth we saw by the beginning of the first X-Men movie.

Sinister would thus hire the now frail villain as his muscle, ending Liev Schreiber’s role in the Wolverine film/series, but transitioning the character for the role as secondary villain in “Origins: Gambit” as a part the Marauders, where Schreiber can attempt to balance that “animal” he spoke of so confidently in “Origins: Wolverine.”

This would leave Gambit with Sinister as the final villain, but it also allows for a Victor Creed/Gambit showdown, where Creed can blame Gambit for bringing Logan to Three-Mile-Island and Gambit can seek revenge for the 2 years he spent incarcerated there. It would also sow the seeds for Magneto's putting together the "Brotherhood" since the Marauders would also be made up of Mystique and Toad. Magneto could even enter the final act of Gambit's movie to persuade the three to join his cause – perhaps even convincing Creed that he'd lead him to Wolverine.

Mr. Sinister leading the Marauders of Mystique, Toad, and a more vicious and animalistic looking Sabertooth would be an excellent group of villains to contest Gambit and his group of Morlocks or Thieves/Assassins Guilds. Toad was seen imprisoned at Three-Mile-Island but wasn't among the group that Xavier found upon meeting "First Class" members Scott Summers and Emma Frost, so it can be revealed in a flash-back scene in the Gambit spin-off that Sinister "rescues" a group of mutants from the island, among those being Toad and Mystique. The idea of Sinister in search of Gambit and looking to bring him on bored to lead his Marauders could either leave the film ending with Gambit in defeat and as Sinister’s new subject to work on (to potentially be the villain of X-Men 4), or it could see Gambit defeat Sinister and be brought in by Wolverine to join the X-Men. I kind of like the idea of Gambit being under Sinister’s control to fight the X-Men, though. Especially if we get a film already with him as the protagonist/anti-hero and he will ultimately end up as the Dark Phoenix-style villain that is conflicted.

Wolverine can even bring him in to join the team (as he remembers him as his first acquaintance post-memory loss), immediately leaving Gambit with Rogue’s intrigue as she admires Wolverine - any friend of his would be someone Rogue would make acquaintance with.

This would leave the New X-Men team with a core of Gambit, Rogue, Ice Man, Colossus, Shadow Cat, Storm, Beast, and eventually to be led by Xavier in his new body. Wolverine would have a much-reduced role, and Gambit/Rogue/Ice Man would take on the Wolverine/Jean/Cyclops love triangle with Wolverine perhaps even making a joke about how “some things never change” and this romance could then potentially leave Gambit conflicted for when he is eventually to turn on the X-Men.

Btw, everyone must read:

X-Men 4 and New Mutants movies in planning?
http://screenrant.com/xmen-4-new-mutants-movies...

@ propnut & Brodie_Bruce,

Time travelling storylines would be neat and would allow for even more ways to tie in all the movies together.

Chamber is cool.

There is a precedent in the Marvel Universe which would eleminate events of the last film and set things back on track. That would be the time traveling Bishop (Or Wolverine & Storm) returning to the past to un-do the killing of professor X and the X-Men because they were the only hope for the future. It was done at least twice on the 80s animated series and again to a drgree on the latest animated attempt, Wolverine and the X-Men.
The Apocolypse and Sentinel/Master Mold story lines weren't really even touched upon in the films, other than a brief danger room sequence. Neither was Mr Sinister. Either through a continuation or reboot, there are still a number of places to go. At this point I really don't care which direction they use.

@ Chris

you have an odd obsession with beak,chamber,husk, and i cant understand why VERY mediocre characters

I like the Mr Sinister storyline that is being thrown about (but please not daniel craig.... Im thinking more "Boone" FROM LOST)

First class will be cool, but they should definitely include gambit

Bring on "Days of future's past"
things that would please me in Future X-flicks.
1. Sentinels
2. morloks
3.an Extreme Absence of Brett Ratner
4.Gambit(Not origins Gambit)
5.apocalypse
6.Cable & Forge
7.Peitro & wanda (Quick-S & Scarlet-W)
8.Cyclops to Not be Dead
9.Mutant Registration act
10.Every character to have there proper accent


i could live without a first class Movie.

i think they should of just done an x-men 4 movie. i don't want to see another wolverine film, the first had great action in it, but not a good movie(that's just my opinion). deadpool movie would be cool. so would magneto. i dont think a gambit film could work, i think he's better off in small roles. but hey that's just my opinion's.

The pipe dream that will never happen even if they paid me to write the dumb thing or did it for free...

X-Men: Muir Island. (X4)

Where we meet up with some new characters like Wolfsbane and Proteus, the latter who could alter reality...and Prof X gets rehab.

Watch out for The Brood

*****

As to what we do have...Magneto to be is the best bet, because there is a slight chance that some of those film's events could take place after Last Stand (Magneto tells the story of his past)

I also like the Japan angle of Wolverine II.

i would love to see an x-men movie based on the very first original team members with updated version's of the vintage x-men costume's. are there any fan's of the classic x-men with cyclops,marvelgirl,iceman,beast & angel who want to see this become the next x-men movie made?

Idris Elba would play Apocalypse.

yeah that voting landslide about the x-men forward or backwards thing should be due to Apocalypse. Who would play him?

@ greenknight333,

Yeap, in the comics - Definitely not in Fox's Movie Universe though.

I think it would be a neat way to introduce Cable into the franchise in one of the First Class movies and that would allow a Deadpool/Cable work down the road.

@ Bill

The films won't delve into the Pryor thing. They won't get into Mr Sinister cloning experiments and Cyc having a kid with a Jean look-a-like. It doesn't make sense with the trilogy. However, a Cyc and Emma relationship before Jean does work in the movies since they're doing it backwards and have introduced her into the story (and meeting Scott) before Jean.

Perhaps that love triangle ends with Emma leaving and as we know, him ending up with Jean.

@Rob... I must admit that I'm kind of hesitant to see Cable make an appearance. Never got into his character, but I also stopped collecting the comics shortly after he entered the picture and "The New Mutants" series was relaunched as "X-Force," so he never really got a chance with me as a reader.

That and I don't think the whole Madelyne Pryor thing is something the films should delve into. Frankly, once they created that ludicrous plotline that she was really a clone of Jean, I started to lose interest. Like Chris Claremont, I felt Scott leaving his wife (Madelyne) for Jean was very not in keeping with his character. The whole "well, Madelyne was really just a clone of Jean all along anyway" excuse was a really poor way to explain what still amounted to having Scott turn into an adulterer. That was one of the reasons I was glad to hear he was finally paired with someone OTHER than Jean. He's an interesting character in his own right, and the films have done a disservice to him by reducing him to nothing more than Jean's boyfriend.

@Greenknight, a good point to consider. The whole division of rights really does get confusing for these Marvel films.

I thought Marvel Studios still owned the rights to Cable..Rob any idea on that one?

I thought Cable was the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor...

@ Bill Blume

I wrote exactly on that love triangle thing..


how about Cable as the son of Emma and Cyc....

Man, now THAT was a brain fart! :)

If what's been written all over the net this past year about Marvel character movie releases holds, then it doesn't make sense that a "First Class" movie can be released any sooner than 2013. Keeping the same actors would sort of affect what story you tell too. The same mounting and release problems would effect an X-4 movie as well. I'm sure money will figure in here too. Ask this, any substantial cash been spent on the Magneto movie? Is the Wolverine 2 movie a sure thing?
If they would decide to make First Class instead of Wolverine 2 then I could see that. Unless Fox would bookend summer and the winter holiday seasons with an X-Men movie, I don't see them releasing 2 in any given year.

If what's been written all over the net this past year about Marvel character movie releases holds, then it doesn't make sense that a "First Class" movie can be released any sooner than 2013. Keeping the same actors would sort of affect what story you tell. The same mounting and release problems would effect an X-4 movie too. I'm sure money will figure in here as well. Ask this, any substantial cash been spent on the Magneto movie? Is the Wolverine 2 movie a sure thing?


If they would decide to make First Class instead of Wolverine 2 then I could see that. Unless Fox would bookend summer and the winter holiday seasons with an X-Men movie, I don't see them releasing 2 in any given year. If you could recycle movie locations you could film two X-Men movies back to back or at nearly the same time. That seems real remote too. I just don't see it.

Knowing what we know Fox should do a focus group and see what people really want to see and make that. The INTERNET is obviously the place to get this kind of feed back. Set up a poll page have the netizens choose.

I do like the idea of a Cyclops/Emma Frost/Jean Grey love triangle as part of the First Class storyline. I think that makes sense, and it would be an interesting way to reverse the way things worked out in the comic book (since Scott has ended up with Emma instead of Jean).

Beast and Storm make sense in there, too. I'd hate to see Banshee turned into a teenager, though. I think it's much more interesting to have him in there as the older, former Interpol guy mentoring the kids in the field. Iceman worked as a kid, because he's always been kind of immature (even as an adult). You can't do that with Banshee. Of course, Banshee creates another part of Cyclops' storyline there. Banshee gets injured and that forces Cyclops to take on the leadership role.

Villain-wise, I think it would need to be the Shadow King. They're obviously heading that way. After all, we see Professor X standing in that scene in Wolverine, so it's pre-wheelchair, begging the question of how he got that way. I wouldn't be upset to see them use Mr. Sinister, though. He's an excellent villain when handled well.

Rob, thanks for the update! And I'll definitely be adding you to my Twitter roll. Thanks!

For first class, I like Drew's potential team, but I do feel Storm should be there. I'm not particularly fond of her character, but I want them to at least ATTEMPT continuity, and in X1 it's stated that Storm was one of Xavier's first students.

But like most people here, I want an X4. I couldn't care less about Wolverine 2, because no matter how much potential it has, I still have that sour taste in mouth from the first one, or a Gambit solo flick.

I say make Apocalypse the main villain for X4. Since I can't think of any logical way to bring back Cyclops that wouldn't feel contrived or forced, instead bring in Havok as his replacement. Combine the Apocalypse and Living Pharaoh/Monolith characters and suddenly you've got a plot.

@K
Maybe Cable will be in the Deadpool movie if and when that comes out. I wouldn't mind seeing that but you know Fox will put their own touch on him like they did with Deadpool.

I love Drew's idea. Maybe a Sinister storyline would help set up Cable for a Cable&Deadpool movie? Wishful thinking with a sure-to-be-convoluted storyline, but still ... Cable&Deadpool is at the top of my wish list right now.

If your going to make a fourth x-men it should move forward instead of backward in the story line. At this point in my opinion the storyline should build even more with magnetos powers returning as well as an introduction to apocalypse, mr. sinister,omega red, cable, bishop, and the acolytes, and you can even pop in jubilee. So theres another 3 movies or so there. Keep our hearts content,build the stories as they were written and dont go back in time. If you must show the past just add it in the sequels or make short films and put it in the bonus features lol.

Jeepers Chris. That is a list and a half.

i have been saying what i want in x-film on these blog forever and does anyone care? no!!! i want first class to be the sentinel story and the government is backing stryker because stryker lies about what happen in the wolverine film and says mutants have started war on humans and killed a lot of military soldiers. i would also like to see sinister in that film and characters that you can feel for like, beak,chamber,husk,glob herman, angel salvador and others or as cameos. i want to see apocalypse in the magneto film as the main villain. i want to see wolverine 2 with more victor becomeing sabretoothe,silver samuria,omega red,and saruon. a gambit origins film would be awesome as well as a district-x with bishop being a detective hunting wanted mutants that normal cops can't get.and of course we all want a x-men 4 and 5 film with more colossus,iceman,rogue,nightcrawler,angel,gambit,beak,chamber,husk and storm. that is what i want to see. if not i really want marvel to take the rights back and remake the franchise more like the comic book and its characters. blob was not blob,deadpool,was not deadpool,and there were more but anyways thats what i want to see.

@ Thomas

I like the idea and I think all X-characters could come back for a fourth film, Even Cyclops. Just say she knocked him out by the river or something and have Sinister come in, kidnap him, and brainwash him. Turn him into a semi-villain that eventually turns good at the end of X4.

I say do a wolverine 2 ,tie the movies together in a nice way then procede with an X4 because all the characters are there minus cyclops.Professor x is alive(sort of)and jean can come back i mean shes the phoenix and this isnt the Dark Knight this comic can get away with it i mean there mutants how real is that?Develope all the current Xmen power and stories and introduce new villains plus bring back Singer throw a bunch of money into it get the best fxs and fix the mess x3 was .

I definitely agree that the update is because it made news yesterday. Maybe he blew the whistle to soon and First Class is going to shoot next year. Keep us updated Screen Rant.

I dont think this (first class) will be that good, and without Hugh Jackman the movie will likely gross around 200 mill worldwide in my opinion (which is not that bad. I just wouldnt go all crazy with the budget because this is in no way a guarantee.
I also woudl be surprised to see Ian McCellin sigh on for A Magneto solo flick...he's too good of an actor to degrade himself to this.
As for another Wolverine movie, it will probably be better than the last (because the last one SUCKED) but still not be that good.
A Gambit solo movie would take a looooong time to even consider because the actor needs to develop a fanbase, being as the character by itself is not strong eneough to support a mass audience.

@ Drew
REALLY REALLY like your ideas. Mr. Sinister would make a great villain and woudl LOVE to see him in the X-men movies.

Unfortunately, this is FOX we are talking about so lets not hold our breath