Here's everything you need to know about Fox's canceled Beast movie script. For the entirety of Fox's X-Men franchise, they have primarily focused on the main saga. The original X-Men trilogy helped lay the groundwork for what modern superhero movies would become, and the soft reboot that began in X-Men: First Class launched a four-film story centered around younger versions of familiar characters. Through it all, only Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) received standalone movies.
Fox did at one point consider a solo outing for Magneto as a prequel film but that idea was folded into First Class, and they also considered a standalone movie for Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique given her star power. It was recently revealed that a solo movie for Hank McCoy aka Beast (Nicholas Hoult) was also in early development for a time. The movie came as an idea from longtime franchise editor John Ottman and his assistant Byron Burton. Fox and X-Men producer Simon Kinberg never moved forward with the idea, and now that Disney has control over these characters, Ottman and Burton released their script online.
The movie was tentatively titled X-Men: Fear the Beast and was developed by Ottman and Burton around the same time that Ottman finished work on X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. It would've similarly been set in the late 1980s and, if made, would've added some major wrinkles to the future for the franchise and what Dark Phoenix would be. Here is everything that you need to know about what Fear the Beast could've been based on the first draft of the screenplay.
Danger Room Training
Let's start with the beginning, where a massive fight scene inside of the Danger Room would've kicked off the movie after a brief cold opening. The scene featured a group of young mutants on a bus in Times Square in New York. The students are overseen by Mystique, but the trip takes a turn for the worst. The group Friends of Humanity begin attacking the location with giant robots and put Mystique and her class of mutants in grave danger.
The script doesn't detail any of the kids directly involved with the scene beyond Jubilee. However, none of them are involved with the actual fight against Friends of Humanity. The main X-Men team arrives (sans Nightcrawler and Quicksilver), and it is only after Beast loses control and fails the mission that it is revealed that this is all just a training exercise. It all makes for an opening action sequence that could be quite thrilling and feature lots of mutant powers, while also being incredibly similar to X-Men: Last Stand's opening.
Wendigo Is The Villain
After the opening sequence, Beast heads to Canada in search of another mutant he has been helping who has a similar mutation as him: Dr. Paul Cartier. Beast learns upon arrival that Cartier is missing and finds old video recordings of him doing tests with the mutation repressor serum that Hank developed and shared with him. But, Cartier reverse-engineers the serum to increase his strength instead and becomes a big, white wolf-like creature who terrorizes the locals.
Known as Wendigo, the white beast debuted in Incredible Hulk #162 in 1973. Wendigo is not a mutant in the comics but rather the result of a curse set upon Cartier after eating another man in the wilderness as a means of survival. For the movie, he is a proper mutant and a semi-creation of Beast, but his new form is too much for him to take. Wendigo defeats him in their first encounter and badly injures Beast.
Wolverine Joins The Fight
With Beast in need of help, Professor X uses his telepathic abilities and vast knowledge of the mutant race to contact Wolverine. Fear the Beast would've introduced him in a very familiar place for longtime fans of the movie franchise, but also much earlier in this new timeline. The plan was for a new actor to take the role and his debut would've been identical to Hugh Jackman's.
The script details an opening cage fight for his first scene, which is the same setting for Wolverine's first scene in X-Men. Instead of meeting a young Rogue though, Wolverine begins hearing Professor X's voice mid-fight to recruit him to help Beast. He agrees to do so and travels to Canada, where he'll dawn the classic brown and tan comic costume for the first time on the big screen. Along the way, Professor X fills him in on everything that has he doesn't remember.
X-Men: Apocalypse Cast Have Cameos
In addition to meeting a younger Wolverine, Fear the Beast's script is loaded with cameos from the main cast of X-Men: Apocalypse. During the opening Danger Room sequence, the team that joins Beast and Mystique in the training exercise is Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey. Jubilee is also shown on the bus and does get in on the action, but it is unclear if she is actually taking part in the training or just part of the Danger Room's mission. Even though they fail thanks to Beast losing control, it is a great display of their powers and even has Cyclops taking command of the team.
After the Danger Room opening though, the main X-Men team, excluding Beast, go on a real mission. This is why they are not involved with the majority of the story and allows Beast to be on his own. They do show back up at the very end of the movie though, and Nightcrawler is with them too. Oddly enough, there is no mention of Quicksilver, who was part of the main team at the end of Apocalypse, so it isn't clear where he is during all of these events.
Fear The Beast's Ending
So what do the X-Men discover when they finally arrive in Canada? They see the aftermath of the climactic battle against Wendigo. Since Beast previously lost to Wendigo, he decides that the only way to beat the white monster is to match his power. Hank injects himself with the reverse engineered serum used by Cartier to become Mega-Beast. The new version of Beast is twice the size, darker in color, and described as "a true force of nature." Mega-Beast is a more formidable opponent for Wendigo, but he still gets help from Wolverine.
Together, Mega-Beast and Wolverine fight Wendigo, as angry locals attempt to kill Wendigo and Mega-Beast themselves, knowing that some monster has been terrorizing the town for some time. After the three mutants battle through the forest, the fight moves to a sawmill where Ahnah (a local that Hank meets and develops a relationship with) arrives and shoots serum darts into Wendigo. She connects on two shots and Mega-Beast hurls him over a conveyor belt, where Wendigo is then entangled with a chain. The serum begins to work and changes Wendigo back to Cartier's human form, but that results in him slipping through the chain. Cartier dangles above a wood chipper and with Ahnah also in danger, he lets go of the chain so that Hank can save her instead.
The very end of Fear the Beast shows the X-Men helping Ahnah fix her cabin which was previously destroyed in the movie. Professor X alters the memories of everyone in the town so they do not remember these events and believe Wendigo is a myth. Wolverine decides to not officially join the team yet, but a connection between him and Jean is teased. Then, as the X-Men leave on the Blackbird, it is revealed that Mr. Sinister has been disguised as a scarred, old man who had a small role earlier in the film and now has one of Cartier's steroid serum vials. If all of this had come to pass, the Beast solo movie would've had some big ramifications on possible future X-Men installments.
