Magneto As An Anti-Hero and More As Kinberg Discusses ‘X-Men’ Plans

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X-Men: Days of Future Past did a lot to spin Fox’s X-franchise on its head. While being a sequel to X-Men: First Class, and sharing a cast with all of the previous films, it essentially rebooted the series. In a rather ingenious way, Simon Kinberg, Bryan Singer, and their writing staff were able to give the series a fresh new start without having to press a Batman Begins-style “Reset Button.” It’s not the first time this has happened, as 2009’s Star Trek also proved that you can use certain, accepted science fiction conventions to start things over without having to say that everything that came before it is now meaningless. 

Kinberg sat down with Yahoo to discuss some of the ripples that will be felt all throughout the X-universe after the events of Days of Future Past. What stays? What goes? What can we expect? With X-Men: Apocalypse looming, what do they have in store for the still-lucrative franchise?

For starters, Kinberg points to the fact that Michael Fassbender’s Magneto may not be going full-on evil. The implication at the end of First Class was that he had turned that corner and was going to become a villain. Then in DoFP, the movie positioned him as more of an anti-hero. At the very end, Kinberg points out, the film takes that idea a step further:

“At the end of the movie [Magneto] flies away without his helmet, with the implication that he’ll go off and continue to be Magneto in some form, but not be able to hide it from Charles, who‘ll be able to read his mind and track him. There’s a truce of some kind between Charles and Magneto, but there’s a part of Magneto that will always be the Magneto we know from the comics.”

So those of you that liked tormented, bad ass, anti-hero Erik Lehnsherr, it looks like there’ll be more of that.

What about Quicksilver? We know he’s Magneto’s son, and it was playfully eluded to in the last film. What does Kinberg think about that relationship, and why didn’t we see more of that character in the movie?

“It is a fascinating relationship. Erik grew up without a family, it’s such a huge part of him, of his mission. So the idea of exploring what it means for Magneto to be a father and reconnect with a son many years afterhis birth, is fascinating and certainly something that would be interesting to explore in future films.

On the character’s disappearing act after his big sequence in DoFP:

“We didn’t use him because they were recruiting him for a specific mission: the prison break to get Magneto out of the Pentagon. The mission beyond that was much more personal: to save Raven, more spiritually than physically. [So Quicksilver] could’ve run in and grab her, but he wouldn’t have been able to change her mind.”

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Kinberg also acknowledged that certain things are just inevitable. No matter what happens, certain characters are fated to end up in certain situations. Take Wolverine, for example. SPOILER ALERT. At the end of DoFP, Logan is basically shown to have avoided the Weapon X program that would’ve given him his adamantium claws. But Kinberg says “Not so fast!”

“We don’t see it because he doesn’t pop his claws at the end of the movie [but like with elements of the story] perhaps how he got his claws is different. But he lands ultimately in the same destination.”

Speaking of how certain things are inevitable, Kinberg points out that not everything has been altered.

“We changed the timeline for everything that came after ‘DOFP’ – so ‘X-Men 1’, 2 and 3, even ‘The Wolverine’. So Jean [Grey] was not killed in ‘Last Stand’, nor was Scott, and a whole lot of other things rippled.”

But when it comes to a character like Nightcrawler, he’s still very much out there:

“Since Azazel was killed, does this mean that Mystique gave birth to Nightcrawler in the time between ‘First Class’ and ‘DOFP’? All I will say is that ten years transpired between ‘First Class’ and ‘DOFP’, so anything is possible. She’s a young woman in her 20s going on 30s… and I will leave it at that!

I love what Bryan Singer and Alan Cumming did with him in ‘X2’. I certainly hope he exists. Nothing that we said or showed in ‘DOFP’ would indicate that he doesn’t.”

With so many mutants, which ones are going to make the cut for X-Men: Apocalypse

  • Bishop? Out
  • Kitty Pryde? Out
  • Psylocke? “Maybe.”
  • Cable? “Maybe.”
  • Scarlet Witch? “Maybe.”

Speaking of Apocalypse, Kinberg says that the film will be even bigger and grander than DoFP:

“The ‘Apocalypse’ story is a bigger film in scope or scale and a more powerful villain than we have ever seen in these films before.”

He also makes clear that Apocalypse will serve as the bookend to First Class, in terms of closing off this particular trilogy of stories:

“The thrust of ‘Apocalypse’ is really to complete the trilogy we began with ‘First Class’ – to complete the stories of young Raven, young Hank, younger Charles and Erik. And complete this trilogy of four people who began the films sort of disparate and in different worlds…[and who] we’ve followed through the span of decades. So that’ll be the thrust. There will be familiar characters and new characters that we haven’t seen…ever…but it’ll be the completion of what we began in ‘First Class’.”

The subject of recasting came up, since a lot of what we’re looking at is re-exploring established characters at younger stages of their lives, while mixing them in with new characters. Kinberg confirmed that they’re not afraid to recast:

“If we included some of the original X-Men, like Storm, Jean, Scott and others in ‘Apocalypse’, yeah we would have to recast them because ‘Apocalypse’ takes place a good 20 years before ‘X1’ which now insanely is 10-15 years ago. It would be very hard to do. Halle [Berry], Famke [Janssen] and James [Marsden] have done such a wonderful job bringing those characters to life and have been so identified with the parts. It would be a tall task, but I also would’ve said before ‘First Class’ that there was no way we’d find actors to stand alongside Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, and we did with Michael [Fassbender] and James [McAvoy]. Are we going to have to recast? If some of characters are in the movie, we would. But we shall wait and see.”

There’s your latest on the X-Men franchise. What do Kinberg’s comments mean for you as a fan?

SOURCE: Yahoo Movies

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