With the Marvel Cinematic Universe already dropping hints at the future of the X-Men in the franchise, Marvel Studios has the opportunity to fix a Fox movie mistake by introducing a younger team. Fox's first X-Men film was released in 2000 and spawned two sequels as well as a critically panned Wolverine spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After this, Fox decided to soft reboot the franchise by making X-Men prequels centered on Charles Xavier/Professor X and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto and a younger version of the titular team.

While the first few films in this prequel/reboot trilogy were well received by fans and critics alike, the novelty quickly wore off and the X-Men franchise ended on a sour note, aside from the Deadpool films and Logan. In terms of the core films though, Fox squandered their star-studded cast for the younger versions of the X-Men and almost turned the franchise into a cinematic laughingstock with the reactions to X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, and The New Mutants. With the X-Men returning to the MCU after the Disney-Fox merger, Marvel Studios can cast younger X-Men once again, only this time fixing the mistakes of Fox's attempted prequels.

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Fox's X-Men Reboot Didn't Work

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Fox's rebooted X-Men series began with X-Men: First Class, which told the story of Professor X and Magneto's first meeting, their formation of the X-Men, and how their relationship fell apart to become what was known from the original X-Men trilogy. With a fantastic cast, great direction, and a fresh take on the X-Men known from the beloved first two films in the franchise, the prequels were off to a strong start. This only continued with the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, which seamlessly wove the prequel and original trilogies together into one story.

After this though, Fox's X-Men reboot fell apart due to the lackluster reception of X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix. Apocalypse only expanded the star-studded cast of the first two films and squandered them with a less-than-compelling script in a film that felt too similar in tone and style to the early 2000s X-Men films it was trying to differentiate itself from. Dark Phoenix then took this even further, needlessly rehashing a concept that was already poorly executed in X-Men: The Last Stand. This also highlighted another issue with X-Men's sprawling franchise: the overly confusing, convoluted timeline. Towards the end of the rebooted X-Men films, the franchise lacked any cohesion and clarity and fizzled out with The New Mutants, another attempted reboot that squandered yet another talented young cast.

How The MCU Can Fix Fox's X-Men Reboot Plan

The cast of X-Men First Class walking toward the camera.

The main way the MCU's X-Men can rectify this problem is by emulating what Fox attempted with X-Men: First Class. By casting younger actors to play the X-Men as they originate, as opposed to older actors who have already been secretly living in the MCU, Marvel Studios can tell the story Fox attempted to with the benefit of the natural cohesion the MCU brings. While this would require some reshuffling of certain characters' origins to fit the timeline, such as Magneto's driving factor being his persecution at the hands of the Nazis, casting younger actors would be the logical step for the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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