A Supposed History in the Making of X-Men Films
In 1992, producer Lauren Shuller-Donner acquired the rights for 20th Century Fox, impressed with the popularity of the animated series aired on Fox Kids. Andrew Kevin Walker was tapped to write the script, which featured Wolverine being recruited by Professor Charles Xavier to help the X-Men - Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman and Angel - fight Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants, formed by Sabretooth, Toad, Blob and Juggernaut, which intended to turn New York City into a mutant homeland, and also evade the Sentinels created by the government to destroy them.
Walker's script was deemed too expensive, and Fox commissioned new drafts from multiple scribes, including Joss Whedon, John Logan, Laeta Kalogridis, John Schamus and Michael Chabon, among others, all following the basic template of Wolverine joining the X-Men and helping them save the world.
In one of the drafts, Wolverine and Kitty Pryde are recruited to replace former X-Men Mastermind, who was expelled for attempting to rape Jean. Mastermind then joins forces with Thomas Price, a mutant supremacist with the power to control metal, who is masquerading as a anti-mutant televangelist to increase tensions between the two races, to lure the X-Men into a trap, leaving up to Wolverine and Kitty to rescue them.
In this version, the X-Men are formed by Cyclops, Jean, Storm and Nightcrawler (who oddly has Beast's powers). Magneto has no affiliations with Xavier or his Holocaust survivor background, and the Brotherhood is replaced by a super strong female enforcer, Titania, while Wolverine and Kitty are aided by former X-Men Angel, who cut off his wings and is now a happily-married father of five who lives in a farm in Iowa and joins the fight with his trusty shotgun.
In another draft, Wolverine joins alongside Jubilee, and the X-Men are formed by Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Gambit and Storm, who becomes Wolverine's love interest. The main villain is Magneto, who is also made into the creator of the Weapon-X Program and the man who bonded Wolverine's skeleton to Adamantium and erased his memories. The Brotherhood is present, consisted to Mystique, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and the Juggernaut, and the plot revolves around preventing Magneto from using the Legacy Virus to destroy the human race.
The Legacy Virus was also present in another draft, where Weapon X is created by an Illuminate-like organization, the White Farm, to create living weapons. In this version, the creators of both Adamantium and the Legacy Virus are Jubilee's parents, who are also mentors to Beast. The X-Men, here comprised of Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Nightcrawler, Storm and the aforementioned Beast, find Wolverine and Jubilee on the run from the White Farm and bring him in, unaware Wolverine is a carrier for the Virus, who spreads through the team. In this version, the X-Men are submissive to the Council of Elders, a THE MATRIX-inspired underground society that dictates the decisions of the mutant race.
With Jubilee acting as the main character, Wolverine is made into a tragic, PTSD-ridden wreck who begs to be accepted into the X-Men, to no avail, and has been brainwashed by Weapon X into loving Jubilee as a daughter.
28 drafts were submitted between 1992 and 1996.
Meanwhile, Donner and producer Tom DeSanto approached Robert Rodriguez to direct the movie, but he declined. After briefly considering Brett Ratner, they pitched the concept to Bryan Singer, who had impressed them with THE USUAL SUSPECTS.
Singer declined at first for not being interested in the superhero genre, but reconsidered after learning the thematic subtext of prejudice and acceptance, and wrote a story with DeSanto, which Ed Solomon made into a script. Fox then set a release date for Christmas Day 1998 with a $75 million budget.
Solomon's draft featured Wolverine and Rogue joining the X-Men, formed by Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Storm and Iceman, and helping them fight Magneto and the Brotherhood of Mutants, comprised of Sabretooth, Mystique, Toad, Pyro and Blob, who create a machine powered by Adamantium that they intend to use to turn the world leaders into mutants.
Singer approached Russell Crowe to play Wolverine, but he declined when his salary demands were not met, and recommended his friend Hugh Jackman. However, the studio passed on him, favoring Gary Sinise and Dougray Scott, with the latter winning the role after being slated to become the breakout star of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2.
Patrick Stewart readily accepted to play Professor Charles Xavier, while Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore, Angela Basset, Sarah Michelle Geller and Terrence Stamp were approached to play Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Rogue and Magneto, but all declined, with Jim Caviezel, Famke Jenssen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and Ian McKellen being cast instead. Natalie Portman was also considered for the role of Rogue, while Jeri Ryan was considered for Mystique before Rebecca Romjin was cast. Tyler Mane and Ray Park were then cast as Sabretooth and Toad.
Also, Crowe wanted Wolverine to be bald. For reasons.
During pre-production, the movie went over budget, and the release date had to be postponed to summer 2000 while David Hayter and Christopher McQuarrie were brought in for rewrites to scale down the scope, removing not only Beast, Blob and Pyro and reducing Iceman's role, but also a lengthy sequence at the Danger Room.
The delay led to scheduling conflicts that forced both Scott and Caviezel to leave the project, and Jackman and James Marsden were brought in at the last second to replace them.
The shooting of X-MEN was fraught with problems, partially due to the studio's lack of confidence in the property due to failure of previous superhero movies in the 1990's, and fan backlash over what they believed was a poor adaptation.
One of Singer's most controversial decisions was replacing the colorful superhero suits from the comics for black leather uniforms, which he believed were more realistic and fitting with what is basically a paramilitary group. To add assault to injury, pre-treatment publicity photos from a photoshoot were leaked, leading to FANT4STIC-level backlash that was only subsided when the first trailer was released.
Prior to release, they cut several scenes to shave down the running time to 104 minutes to cover their losses by allowing more screenings per day. However, to their surprise, X-MEN went on to no only become a box office hit, grossing $293 million worldwide, but also be acclaimed by professional critics for its mature script, acting and tone. Along with Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN and Stephen Norrington's BLADE, it is credited for reviving the superhero genre.
A sequel was immediately greenlit for November 2002.
Singer had decided not to read the comics in preparation for X-MEN, but changed his mind for the sequel, and rejected Fox's plans for the Legacy Virus storyline in favor of an adaptation of the acclaimed "God Loves, Man Kills" storyline, believing it built upon the themes of the previous movie. Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn wrote two different drafts, which were later combined by Singer and Hayter into a new draft, then revised by Singer, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris. Elements of the "Weapon X" storyline were also added to advance Wolverine's character arc.
In early stages, in addition to Nightcrawler, the movie would've also featured Beast joining the X-Men, while Sabretooth and Toad would be featured as brainwashed enforcers for William Stryker alongside Archangel, who would have Adamantium wings and later join the X-Men. Stryker would also have have a prototype Sentinel, the Danger Room would've been featured, and Kitty Pryde had a more substantial role.
Here's concept art of the Sentinel.
But once again production went over budget, requiring these elements to be cut. Singer then added Lady Deathstrike to the narrative as Stryker's enforcer, replacing Anne Reynolds, Stryker's assistant in the comics, so the movie would have an additional action scene in the third act. Toad nearly made it to the movie, where he would have a fight against Nightcrawler.
And here's concept art of the Danger Room.
The entire X-MEN cast returned, but Singer clashed with Halle Berry, who demanded a larger role. Further rewrites made her the team's pilot and added a romantic subplot between her and Nightcrawler.
Anthony Hopkins and Steve Buscemi were Singer's first choices for Stryker and Nightcrawler, respectively, but both declined, and Brian Cox was then cast as Stryker, while Ethan Embry and Neil Patrick Harris auditioned for Nightcrawler before Alan Cummings was cast. Kelly Hu and Aaron Stamford rounded up the cast as Lady Deathstrike and Pyro.
Singer didn't want the movies to be episodic, and believed Wolverine's search for answers about his past and Jean Grey's descend into the Dark Phoenix were the ideal storylines to carry through all movies. Despite the studio's skepticism, Singer instructed Famke Jenssen to react to exposure to Magneto's machine, in order to set up her transformation into the Phoenix.
X2: X-MEN UNITED was delayed to May 2003, and was met with critical acclaim and became a box office hit, grossing $407 million worldwide. Fox once again greenlit a sequel, but there was a problem. The entire cast had been offered two-picture deals, which had expired and had to be renegotiated.
Singer, Dougherty and Harris wrote a preliminary draft for X-MEN 3, in which Jean returns as the Phoenix and decides to end the conflict between humans and mutants in her own terms, while the X-Men attempt to protect her from the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Their plan was to focus on Cyclops and Wolverine putting their differences aside to help Jean and earning each other's respects, and would have introduced three new characters: Emma Frost, an old flame of Xavier who can control people's emotions and is recruited by Magneto to brainwash Jean into joining their cause; Gambit, a young thief who joins the Brotherhood, but ultimately switches sides to the X-Men due to his attraction to Rogue; and the Juggernaut, Magneto's new enforcer.
Singer had even approached Sigourney Weaver and Channing Tatum to play Frost and Gambit, respectively, but fate had other plans...
While Fox was still negotiation the contracts, Singer, Dougherty and Harris pitched SUPERMAN RETURNS to Warner Bros Pictures and received the green light. Singer proposed to return to X-MEN 3 after completing the movie, but Fox decided to move forward without him and scheduled X-MEN 3 for May 2006, one month before SUPERMAN RETURNS. Kinberg and Penn were then brought back to write the script, using some of Singer's ideas and adding the mutant cure storyline to the narrative to give Magneto a stronger motivation to declare war on Humanity. They also decided to include Beast and Angel in the movie and give larger roles to Kitty Pryde and Colossus.
Executive producer Tom Rothman was notoriously against the more fantastical aspects of the X-Men mythos, including the Phoenix. At his behest, the concept was changed into Jean Grey's malevolent split personality, and with subsequent rewrites, the cure storyline, which Rothman favored, received more focus over the Phoenix storyline.
Due to the rushed shooting schedule, James Marsden and Rebecca Romjin were both unavailable, and their characters had to written off the story. Although Fox proposed to have Cyclops die off-screen in-between movies, Marsden returned for a brief appearance, in which Cyclops is killed by the Phoenix, which Kinberg and Penn believed was important to her character arc. Mystique, on the other hand, was cured and later betrayed Magneto to the U.S. government. Although there were plans for her betrayal to be part of his plan all along, and for her to be reunited with him in the end, she was unavailable and the concept was scrapped.
In 2005, Matthew Vaughn was tapped to direct the movie, and even conducted the pre-production process, casting Kelsey Grammer and Vinnie Jones as Beast and the Juggernaut, respectively. However, disagreements with the studio over the shooting scheduled caused him to drop out shortly afterwards.
Fox offered the movie to several directors, including Richard Donner, Alex Proyas and Joss Whedon, before Ratner accepted the job and revised the script with Kinberg and Penn.
Halle Berry demanded a larger role. More characters were added, including Moira McTaggert, Bolivar Trask, Multiple-Man and the Morlocks. Entire subplots were added and then scrapped. Alan Cummings even declined to return and undergo the long make-up process given how little Nightcrawler would have done, and the character was removed. Ratner and the writers also decided to kill Xavier as the movie's dramatic turning point.
At the time, producers justified Nightcrawler's absence by saying the audience wouldn't be able to follow a movie with three blue characters.
The story was reestructured multiple times, and several ideas were added and then scrapped. At different points in development, Gambit, Omega Red, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Sunfire, Mister Sinister, the Legacy Virus and the Sentinels were slated to appear.
Romantic pairings such as Wolverine/Storm and Beast/Storm were discussed. Fight scenes such as Juggernaut VS. Colossus, Wolverine VS. Callisto, Storm VS. Phoenix and Rogue VS. Juggernaut were talked about.
The entire third act in which the X-Men battle the Brotherhood in the lawns of the White House was scrapped in favor of the siege of Alcatraz Island, which was originally a mutant prison. The movie also had multiple endings, scrapped and reshot based on the test-audience scores.
Production was so troubled that Fox viewed X-MEN 3 as the final movie in the series, and decided to end it in favor of a series of spin-offs, X-MEN ORIGINS, which would detail the backstories of the main characters, and greenlit X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE for 2009, with X-MEN ORIGINS: MAGNETO, X-MEN ORIGINS: CYCLOPS and X-MEN ORIGINS: STORM also in the pipeline.
The original cast returned, along with Grammer and Jones, who had previously been cast by Vaughn. Eliza Dushku and Mike Vogel were originally approached by Vaughn to play Kitty Pryde and Angel, but Ratner replaced them with Ellen Page and Ben Foster. Dania Ramirez, Ken Leung, Omahyra Mota and Mei Melancon playes the Omegas Callisto, Quill, Archlight and Psylocke, while Cameron Bright played Leech, the young mutant whose blood is used as a basis for the cure.
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND was released on May 2006 and was a box-office hit with $459 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing X-MEN movie. However, it received mixed reviews, with many criticism to tone, direction, story and acting. Fox then moved forward with X-MEN ORIGINS, tapping David Benioff to write WOLVERINE and Trevor Sheldon to write MAGNETO.
Benioff's draft centered on Wolverine's impoverished childhood in the 1950's, him joining the Army and serving under William Stryker in the Vietnam War, and attempting to leave the past behind to build a new life with Kayla Silverfox, only for her to be murdered by Sabretooth, prompting Wolverine to volunteer to the Weapon X Program to hunt him down.
Sheldon's draft centered on Magneto searching for revenge against the Nazi scientist who experimented on him at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and befriending Charles Xavier, a soldier who helps him uncover a conspiracy masterminded by the government to use mutants as weapons.
Both scripts built up to the formation of the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, and Jackman was set to return for WOLVERINE, while Stewart and McKellen were in negotiations to appear in the prologue and epilogue of MAGNETO.
Skip Woods was called to revise Benioff's script, using Marvel's mandated backstory for Wolverine and adding more mutants to attract the public, including Gambit and Deadpool, tentatively to launch their own spin-offs. In Benioff's draft, Weapon XI is an army of clones of Sabretooth engineered as living weapons against mutants. Woods' version changed this to Stryker turning military officer Garrison Kane into a human weapon with the powers of several mutants.
Fox approached Singer to direct WOLVERINE, but he declined due to scheduling conflicts. Len Wiseman and Zack Snyder were also considered before Gavin Hood was recommended by Jackman. David Ayer, James Vanderbilt and Scott Silver performed uncredited rewrites on the script to fix storyline issues.
Hood notoriously clashed with Rothman over their views on the project. Hood wanted a somber, grittier movie centered on Wolverine struggling with his inner demons, while Rothman wanted a more conventional summer action blockbuster. Rothman even remodeled the entire Weapon X facility sets to look "cleaner" and "brighther", with more vibrant colors, while Hood was on a three weeks leave. Hood very nearly dropped out of the project, and Fox had already lined up a last-minute replacement to come in should he do it, but Jackman managed to convince Hood to stay.
Liev Schreiber and Michelle Monaghan were hired to play William Stryker and Kayla Silverfox, while Gerard Butler was approached to play Sabretooth. When he declined, Jackman convinced the studio that Schreiber could get in proper shape to play Sabretooth, and he was given the role, with Danny Huston replacing him as Stryker. Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Kitsch joined in as Deadpool and Gambit, while Scott Adkins was cast as Kane. Monaghan later dropped out and was replaced by Lynn Collins. The studio later decided to merge Deadpool and Weapon XI into one character and called in Reynolds to reshoot Adkins' scenes, with Adkins remaining as his stuntman.
Meanwhile, David S. Goyer was tapped to direct X-MEN ORIGINS: MAGNETO and revise Turner's draft, but his ideas were not well-received by the studio.
An unfinished workprint of the movie leaked weeks ahead of its released and was badly received by fans. Despite Fox's attenmpts at damage control, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE received poor reviews from professional critics and underperformed at the box office, grossing only $373 million worldwide. With MAGNETO already having a troubled production, The X-MEN ORIGINS series was then scrapped.
Fox approached Kinberg to write and produce a new spin-off series, YOUNG MUTANTS, centered on the students of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, including Rogue, Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Angel and Jubilee. Kinberg instead recommended the studio adapt the "First Class" storyline about the formation of the X-Men. Fox tapped Josh Schwartz to write the script, with centered on Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Storm as teenagers struggling with their powers, meeting Professor Charles Xavier and fighting against the government.
Meanwhile, Goyer left X-MEN ORIGINS: MAGNETO due to creative differences with the studio, and the movie was scrapped.
Fox approached Singer to direct the movie, but he once again declined due to scheduling conflicts, but joined in as a producer and recommended Vaughn to direct the movie. Vaughn was enticed by the possibilities of a prequel and pitched the concept of a team of mutants led by Charles Xavier and Magneto, assembled by the government in 1962 to prevent World War III. Schwartz's draft was scrapped, and Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz wrote a new draft, which was then revised by Vaughn and his frequent collaborator, Jane Goldman. Elements of Turner's draft for MAGNETO were used in the movie as well, with the Hellfire Club being chosen as the villains.
James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were cast as Xavier and Magneto. Colin Firth and Bryan Cranston were considered for Sebastian Shaw before Kevin Bacon was cast, while Amber Heard and Rosamund Pike auditioned for Mystique and Moira McTaggert, respectively, before Jennifer Lawerence and Rose Byrne were cast. Lucas Till, Benjamin Walker, Caleb Landry-Jones and Edi Gathegi were cast as Havok, Beast, Banshee and Darwin, while Alice Eve, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemyng and Alex Gonzalez were cast as Emma Frost, Angel Salvadore, Azazel and Riptide. Walker and Eve later dropped out and were replaced by Nicholas Hoult and January Jones.
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS was originally envisioned as a reboot, but the studio preferred viewing it as a revamp, that, while functioning as a prequel to the X-MEN trilogy, could contradict certain events established in those movies.
The movie was released in May 2011 and was well-received by critics, revitalizing interest in the franchise, in addition to being a moderate box-office success for its budget, grossing $353 million worldwide, and motivating Fox to greenlight a sequel with Vaughn directing and writing alongside Goldman.
Meanwhile, Fox greenlit a sequel to X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE adapting the storyline where Wolverine journeys to Japan. Gavin Hood declined to return, and Christopher McQuarrie was tapped to write the script. Darren Aronofsky was later hired to direct the movie and revise McQuarrie's draft, and decided to make it a standalone movie rather than a direct sequel. In his version, set in 1982, Wolverine joins a secret society of ninjas, the Hand, in search of purpose and becoming an enforcer for the Yashida crime family in Tokyo, where he incurs the wrath of Shingen Yashida by falling in love with his daughter, Mariko Yashida.
Fox demanded rewrites, and the lenghty pre-production process led to Aronofsky dropping out and being replaced by James Mangold, who brought in Matt Bombach and Scott Frank to write a new script, set after X-MEN: THE LAST STAND and exploring Wolverine's mortality and sense of purpose. Early drafts included Rogue as Wolverine's companion, but the idea was scrapped to reimforce his loneliness.
Jackman returned for the role once again, and THE WOLVERINE was released on July 2013. It was well-received by professional critics and a box-office hit grossing $418 million worldwide.
In 2011, Fox decided to greenlit DEADPOOL to capitalize on the character's popularity and hired Rhett Reese and Ed Wernick to write the script, with Tim Miller set to direct and Ryan Reynolds returning to the world. However, the movie spent years in Development Hell due to Fox's reluctant to move forward with an R-rated superhero movie.
The same year, the studio also enlisted Jeff Wadlow to write and direct X-FORCE, another spin-off centered on a paramilitary team of mutants led by Cable, which also spent years in Development Hell as the studio mapped out their plans for the X-franchise.
Meanwhile, Vaughn and Goldman developed the sequel to X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. Their idea was to focus on the X-Men racing against time to prevent the Brotherhood of Mutants from assassinating President Richard Kennedy for supressing the mutants' role in averting World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The plan was to bring back the cast of the first movie, and introduce only a new mutant, Polaris, whose powers could rival Magneto's. However, Vaughn dislike the direction the project was going in contrast with X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, and dropped out to direct KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE. Singer was then brought in to replace him.
Singer and writer Simon Kinberg turned the movie into an adaptation of one of Singer's favorite storylines, "Days of Future Past", which had been overruled by Rothman in the early 2000's for featuring time travel and giant robots. In their script, Kitty Pryde sends Wolverine back in time to 1972 to recruit Xavier and Magneto to help him prevent Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask and creating a post-apocalyptic future in which Earth has been destroyed by the Sentinels.
McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence and Hoult returned alongside the original cast headlined by Jackman, Stewart and McKellen. Peter Dinklage and Josh Helman joined the cast as Trask and young William Stryker. Helman was originally cast as the Juggernaut, a former student of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters who would help Wolverine, Xavier and Beast rescue Magneto from an underground prison in the Pentagon, but the character was scrapped in favor of Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters. Anna Paquin's role was also reduced to a brief cameo when a subplot about rescuing Rogue to replace an injured Kitty as Wolverine's tether to the future was cut to shorten the movie's lenght and streamline the narrative.
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was released on May 2014 and was a smash hit at the box office, grossing $747 million worldwide, in addition to receiving widespread critical acclaim. The movie effectively reboot the X-MEN series by altering the timeline, allowing Fox to develop projects more freely, without being restrained by the canon.
The studio greenlit a sequel, X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, which is slated for May 2016, directed by Singer and written by Kinberg, Dougherty and Harris, detailing the formation of the X-Men and their battle against Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen, who plan to purge the Earth of humans and mutants alike to rebuilt it anew. McAvoy, Fassbender, Byrne, Lawrence, Hoult, Till, Peters and Helman are all returning, alongside Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, Kodi Smith-McPhee as Nightcrawler, Lana Candor as Jubilee, Ben Hardy as Archangel and Olivia Munn as Psylocke. A follow-up is already slated for 2018, with McAvoy and Fassbender set to return, and Sheridan, Turner and Shipp expected to follow suit.
After positive reaction to a leaked animatic proof of concept trailer, DEADPOOL was also greenlit, with Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carslyle, T.J. Miller as Weasel, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Stefan Kapcic as Colossus, Brianna Hildenbrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Gina Carano as Angel Dust and Ed Skrein as Ajax. The movie will be released on February 2016 and set in the new continuity created by the events of X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
Further ahead is GAMBIT, written by Josh Zetumer and directed by Doug Liman and starring Channing Tatum as Gambit and Lea Seydoux as his love interest, Bella Bodreaux.
This one took an early hit when Rupert Wyatt, the original director, dropped out early into pre-production process. Delays happened, the movie was also scrapped, but it soldiered through, and, although still slated for 2016 for the time being, will probably only see the light of the movie screen in early 2017.
Jackman will reprise his role one last time in WOLVERINE, written by David James Kelly and Michael Green, and directed by Mangold, which will explore Wolverine's relationship with Charles Xavier, with Patrick Stewart already confirmed to reprise the role.
This one is rolling out March 2017.
Also, in the pipeline, is Josh Boone's NEW MUTANTS, about the young students of the present day Xavier School for Gifted Youngers, troubled teens that are being trained by the big-wing X-Men, and which might feature Negasonic Teenage Warhead among its ranks.
