X2: X-Men United co-writer Zak Penn has revealed the sequel very nearly adapted the famous 'Phoenix Saga'. The original X-Men is often credited with kicking off the modern popularity of comic book movies. The film treated its source material with respect and assembled a great cast, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman. The success of the movie has spawned a long-running franchise and led to studios taking risks on other comic properties.
X-Men: The Last Stand was the final part of the original trilogy and was criticized for trying to cram too many characters and storylines into a runtime too slim to support them all. The film also became infamous for killing off major characters like Cyclops and Professor X, and for reducing the famous Phoenix story - where Jean Grey transforms into her cosmic alter ego - to a subplot. The series will give the storyline another try with forthcoming sequel X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which was recently pushed back to 2019 for reshoots.
Related: X-Men: Dark Phoenix & New Mutants Undergoing Reshoots
X-Men 2 ends with Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) seemingly sacrificing herself to save the team, only for the final shot to suggest she'll return as Phoenix. Writer Zak Penn revealed to THR that this wasn't always the plan, and the sequel was originally going to focus on Grey's transformation; during his time on the movie, Penn managed to convince director Bryan Singer it was too soon to tackle that story:
On X2, part of how I ended up getting the job on it was that originally that was going to be the Phoenix story. I just said ... 'you've built up this real universe and you should establish it more before you go into Phoenix." It was too soon to go into the Phoenix story and it was too soon to get cosmic. I would say that's probably the biggest contribution I made was pushing it in that direction.
Counting spin-offs like the Wolverine trilogy and Deadpool, there are currently ten movies in the X-Men franchise - and counting. While the series is now developed enough to tackle such an ambitious story, the property was a little too young to adapt the 'Phoenix Saga' for only its second entry, so Penn made the right call. Instead, the sequel expanded on the themes of the first movie and fleshed out the brewing conflict between mutants and humankind even more.
After leaving it out of X2: X-Men United, Singer eventually got to explore the Phoenix side of Jean Grey during the finale of X-Men: Apocalypse, and Simon Kinberg's Dark Phoenix will hopefully do the saga justice after all these years. This week's delay of both Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants have raised a few eyebrows though, with the latter expected to reshoot up to 50% of the original movie and add brand new characters.
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Source: THR
