X-MEN: 10 Storylines Perfect For The Big Screen Once Marvel Studios Reboots "The Mutants"

We know that Marvel Studios is working on something X-Men related for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but these storylines would be perfect for the big screen...at some point. These are our top picks!

Feature Opinion
By JoshWilding - Mar 24, 2021 08:03 AM EST
Filed Under: X-Men

Fox pretty much drove the X-Men franchise into the ground (especially after Dark Phoenix), so it's no wonder Marvel Studios is taking its time when it comes to reintroducing these characters.

Recently, we learned that there's some sort of project in the works that's being referred to as "The Mutants," and the prevailing theory online is that it'll be an initiative to reintroduce and reboot these heroes and villains. No one can blame Kevin Feige and company for taking its time with that, but fans remain extremely excited to see what's in store for those who carry the X-Gene in the MCU.

With that in mind, we're now listing 10 X-Men stories which would be perfect for the big screen. That doesn't mean they should be used too soon, of course, but there are ways to lay the groundwork so that these arcs pay off in a big way down the line and breathe new life into this franchise.

To take a look through these must-see storylines, all you guys need to do is hit the "Next" button!
 

10. Return of the King

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In Fox's X-Men movies, Magneto flip-flopped between being a hero and villain for years, ending up in prison or deciding to retire every time he came close to assembling the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

However, in the Ultimate X-Men story arc "Return of the King," the Master of Magnetism decided that enough is enough and prepares to destroy the Earth in order to remake it in his image. There are some similarities to that first X-Men movie here, but this was Magneto preparing for human genocide on a global level. 

During this storyline, the villain's powers were amplified thanks to a machine built by Forge. The X-Men came together to take Magneto down, and this arc was so good that the series was never quite able to live up to it. This could be an epic culmination of years of stories. 
 

9. Deadly Genesis

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Just like Ed Brubaker's work shook up the Captain America franchise when Marvel adapted The Winter Soldier, Deadly Genesis could do wonders for the X-Men.

This story revealed that before putting together the team of X-Men which included heroes like Wolverine, Storm, and Colossus, Professor X assembled another group of mutants (which included Cyclops' brother Vulcan). They all seemingly died during their first mission, but in the present, it was revealed that Gabriel Summers was still alive...and desperate for revenge.

The story ended with Cyclops banishing Professor Xavier from his own school, leaving him as the new leader of the X-Men. Revelations like this early on about Charles could help the MCU move past telling the same old stories with the team reporting to the all-knowing Professor X. 
 

8. Mutant Massacre

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Arguably one of the most iconic X-Men crossovers of all-time, "Mutant Massacre" introduced the sewer dwelling Morlocks and featured Mr. Sinister sending in his Marauders to wipe them out.

There are a number of big name characters this adaptation could bring to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Gambit. Mr. Sinister's big screen debut is also long overdue at this stage, and even a loose adaptation of this storyline would be a great way to bring him into the X-Men's world.

Seeing the X-Men pushed to their limits (many of them were gravely wounded here) would be great, and as Magneto also played a role in the story, there are lot of places it could take us. Ultimately, though, it would show that being a mutant isn't all about living in a fancy Westchester mansion. 
 

7. Broodfall

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Fox's X-Men took on some big threats over the years, so Marvel Studios will need to top that somehow.

Well, how about an alien invasion? That's where the Brood would come in. "Broodfall" was packed full of cool fights and character drama, while the sight of Wolverine attempting to fight off the infection which would turn him into one of them remains memorable to this very day.

Adapting a story like this would be something new (which is crucial for the characters at this stage), and takes the team in a very unexpected direction which includes elements of sci-fi and horror. That would make it a darker and more mature tale, embracing the cosmic side of the team too.
 

6. E Is For Extinction

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Written by Grant Morrison, his first New X-Men arc was in places every bit as baffling as the rest of his run. However, there are elements here, and from other parts of the series, which would work really well on the big screen. Among them is Scott Summer's affair with Emma Frost, the mystery surrounding the mega powerful Xorn, and a huge revelation about Charles Xavier.

That saw us learn that he has a twin sister (made up of psychic energy) he killed in the womb.

Beast's monstrous secondary mutation would also be fun to explore, and just like "E Is For Extinction" freshened up these characters at a time they were beginning to feel stale, borrowing ideas from this run could be a nice way to take some drastic new risks with these iconic characters. 
 

5. Avengers vs. X-Men

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This is a no-brainer. 

While it would make sense for the X-Men to be introduced in a movie that pits them against the Avengers, it makes far more sense for that to be something Marvel Studios builds towards. After spending a few years familiarising fans with this new version of these mutant characters, bringing them into the orbit of Earth's Mightiest Heroes for an epic battle would be mind-blowing.

There are a number of ways to make this happen, but a simple misunderstanding - the Avengers being fooled into thinking the X-Men are the threat the government and press claim, for example - might be best. Needless to say, we'd want them to eventually team-up for a Secret Wars movie. 
 

4. The Dark Phoenix Saga

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Look, we know what you're thinking: been there, done that, right? It's true that Fox tried and failed to adapt this storyline (twice), but there's still a lot you could do with this one.

As we've mentioned, exploring the cosmic side of their adventures would be awesome, especially if it led to the introduction of the Shi'ar Empire (that's something a more faithful adaptation of the "Dark Phoenix Saga" could lead to). The X-Men have headed into outer space just as many times as the Avengers, and a sci-fi take on the team would be a refreshing and exciting.

There definitely needs to be a lot of breathing space between Dark Phoenix and a new take on this storyline, but given the right build and creative direction, this storyline could finally be redeemed.
 

3. Astonishing X-Men

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Joss Whedon's name is now mud, but there are still ideas from his and John Cassady's Astonishing X-Men run which would fit well into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

X-Men: The Last Stand already borrowed the "Cure" idea, and there's really no reason to bring that back to the big screen. However, setting the action on the alien Breakworld and utilising Ord as a big bad would work nicely, as would the team's decision to step out of the shadows and finally suit up so that they can be seen by the world as legit superheroes.

Throw in other Whedon-created characters like Danger (the Danger Room brought to life), and we could be in for a real treat here. Once upon a time, the filmmaker could have even helmed this adaptation, but that's obviously not something we're anticipating seeing ever happen now.
 

2. House of M

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The Scarlet Witch was never part of Fox's X-Men movies, but that's probably for the best. After all, it meant they didn't get the chance to completely screw the character up before Marvel's take. 

They've actually set the stage for this in WandaVision; Wanda Maximoff has only just started delving into the extent of her abilities as the Scarlet Witch, and her powers will be fully explored in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Wait a few years, though, and some sort of mutant reveal regarding Wanda could very well bring her into the world of the MCU's X-Men. 

House of M featured a lot of Avengers characters. Wolverine was (of course) the main focus, as was Magneto and his family after this alternate reality essentially turned them into the world's royal family. Exploring a world where mutants are the dominant species and Magneto rules over everything has a ton of potential, as does that now iconic "No More Mutants" scene.
 

1. Schism

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Just like Captain America: Civil War divided the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pit two DC Comics icons against each other, the X-Men franchise could very easily follow in their footsteps by loosely adapting Schism somewhere down the line.

That story featured the X-Men split right down the middle, with Cyclops and Wolverine's friendship completely obliterated as they went to war with each other and fought for control of the team.

Splitting the team into two factions (and two franchises) would be a fun direction for the series heading into the future, and just like Cap and Iron Man were eventually reunited, Scott and Logan could be too. This isn't something we'd expect to see for a very long time to come, though.
 

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UXASIS
UXASIS - 3/24/2021, 8:12 AM
A mash-up of Mutant Massacre and House of M would be nice.
HannibalLecter
HannibalLecter - 3/24/2021, 8:13 AM
Nice list! I'm actually surprised to see an article like this today, which is a relieve.

I'm actually hoping to see all these stories and more in movies/series, though I would leave the space affairs for later and start with the mutant discrimination first, specifically with the Morlocks massacre and introduction of comic accurate sentinels.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 3/24/2021, 8:22 AM
''Magneto flip-flopped between being a hero and villain for years, ending up in prison or deciding to retire every time he came close to assembling the Brotherhood''

I love and hate how accurate this statement is. McKellen and Fassbender are great, but the material didn't do them any favors after their first two respective movies.

For their introduction I just want to see the OG comic X-Men take on someone like Master Mind, who forces them in the end to reveal themselves to the world. Eventually I want to see Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix done right, but Onslaught is welcome too.
GhostDog
GhostDog - 3/24/2021, 8:24 AM
Something unexpected like "A Green And Pleasant Land" from 88' would be dope
GhostDog
GhostDog - 3/24/2021, 8:43 AM
@Waddles - how about some BEAST-iality

HannibalLecter
HannibalLecter - 3/24/2021, 8:30 AM
I want to add that I really want to see new X-Men villains in the MCU, Mr. Sinister is on the top of my list, preferably introduced during the mutant massacre but not limited to one appearance. Exodus is another favorite of mine which would make for a visual spectacle and will serve to make Magneto realize how his ideology could spiral out of control, also if the multi-verse stories are still popular when they introduce the X-Men I wouldn't mind seeing Fitzroy either as a secondary villain or the main villain in a series season.



Will44482
Will44482 - 3/24/2021, 8:38 AM
I feel like people are too rough on the fox X-men movies, they have movies like Days of Future Past, First Class and Logan which are as good as the best MCU movies and while a few of the movies are not great I hate when people say Fox butchered the whole franchise
HannibalLecter
HannibalLecter - 3/24/2021, 8:49 AM
@Will44482 - Agreed, those movies were great, also X-Men 2 and both Deadpools. There were some terrible ones too but it wasn't all bad, just hit or miss, pretty much like the DCEU but people don't shit on it as much as they do on Fox X-Men for some reason.
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 3/24/2021, 9:02 AM
@Will44482 - Okay, this might sound crazy but hear me out, maybe a lot of us don’t really like those movies all that much.
Will44482
Will44482 - 3/24/2021, 9:14 AM
@TheUnworthyThor - i understand that I just understand why. Days of Future Past is easily as good as Civil War or the Winter Soldier. It’s really a perfect superhero movie
Will44482
Will44482 - 3/24/2021, 9:15 AM
@Will44482 - *I don’t understand why
TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 3/24/2021, 9:27 AM
@Will44482 - I think it’s very uneven movie. The first half is fun, the second half a slog. The climax in the 70’s I find lackluster, the sentinels underwhelming, and the deaths in the future lack all punch for me since we know five minutes later everything gets reset. Honestly I have no idea why some people give the movie such high marks, I don’t think it’s even nearly as good as X2. The only Fox movie I think is on the same level as the best of the MCU and the best DC movies is the first Deadpool. Meanwhile I do think Civil War is a perfect superhero movie.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 3/24/2021, 10:14 AM
@Will44482 - I don't agree with that at all. DoFP was a good movie and entertaining. I'd even say its the best X-Men movie. But in full Fox fashion, it still had a lot of the same crap that irritates me.

1. How can Kitty suddenly transport people's consciousness through time and into their body in the past? We've never seen her do anything remotely close to that, and anything she has ever phased has been herself or solid objects. Yet, now she can send someone's completely intangible thoughts into their past body?

2. The future X-Men team. Why do we care about half of them again? We didn't see any of them for longer than a minute total on screen, yet we're supposed to care when they are getting killed? Bishop, Warpath, Blink, and Sunspot. I don't even think they even said Warpath and Sunspot's names.

3. Magneto taking control of Sentinels by jamming rebar into them? Explain to me how that works again? Lol. So now his powers allow him to run electrical currents through mechanical objects and control them? Makes no sense.

Its just par for the course though. Ramming in characters into movies where they don't belong and doing them dirty, and totally getting people's powers all wrong.

You don't really get any of that in Civil War or Winter Soldier. (Winter Soldier beint one of my favorite CBM's of all time.)
tripttwe
tripttwe - 3/24/2021, 11:56 AM
@CorndogBurglar - yeah, all that is true. Bryan Singer gave his films a sexual orientation liberation perspective. It needs to go back to the divisive racial ideology it originated from. The snappening and the multiverse have given the MCU perfect breeding ground for mutants. Feige is going to knock this out of the park.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 3/24/2021, 12:54 PM
@tripttwe - Yeah, I agree, but I really don't want mutants to just appear out of the Multiverse or from the Snap. I feel like thats really lazy, and there's a much better way to do it.
tripttwe
tripttwe - 3/24/2021, 2:01 PM
@CorndogBurglar - I suggested Arcade. He'd be a great introduction to the first five grouping. A psychopath creating a "safe space" for misguided teens. He'd be the anti-Xavier. A jigsaw meets riddler type who creates Murderworld. He becomes obsessed with Mutants once he sees one escape his murder-course through superhuman methods. Mojo is secretly watching Arcade at Mojoworld. Sinister is watching both Arcade and Mojo (via alien technology) with plans to observe and reanimate Apocalypse. Discretion should be heavily used in the world of mutants. They learn from Iron Man and Spider-Man that exposure tends to lead to unfortunate fates. They do everything to stay under the radar in an overexposed world. Penny, penny.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 3/24/2021, 2:37 PM
@tripttwe - Man, I don't know why but I always loved Arcade and Mojo. I don't think we'd ever see them as big threats in the films, but I would love it.

But them again I always loved the weirder Batman villains too, like Ventriloquist and Mad Hatter.
tripttwe
tripttwe - 3/24/2021, 7:52 PM
@CorndogBurglar - that's why it'd work. The villains are famous enough to be known, but undelevoped enough to be updated reimagined.
MyCoolYoung
MyCoolYoung - 3/24/2021, 8:45 AM
The X-men if Wanda utters “no more mutants”

TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 3/24/2021, 8:49 AM
I’m very curious how Feige and co will tackle the X-men overall. Like so far individual movies have set up aspects for the Avengers movies. They couldn’t tell much of a story with the mutants with just a single X-men movie every three years. Now I suspect individual mutants will get their own Disney+ series but what about movies. I imagine Wolverine and Storm will get solo movies but will there be more? Or will they try to make more X-men movies more quickly than they did Avengers? Or both?
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 3/24/2021, 1:09 PM
@TheUnworthyThor - Have they confirmed if The Mutants is the actual name of the film or if its just a working title?

Either way, I really struggle with this. I don't know that the X-Men need solo films or shows first. Mainly because they all have their powers for the same reason. They were born with them. And they've been at Xavier's school training.

But at the same time, the X-Men have always benefitted from their characters having so much depth, and I'm not sure you can pull that off with a 2 hour long team movie. Surely you can only focus on a few main people and only give small explanations for others

I do like the idea of them showing up in other Marvel movies and shows though. Storm could show up in Black Panther showing off her African roots. Rogue could show up in Captain Marvel 2 and show how she got her powers. Colossus could have been in Black Widow since it deals with Russia.

People like Wolverine and Gambit don't need tons of story in the first movie because they already have shadowy pasts. Gambit could have a D+series after the movie. Wolverine should have a solo trilogy beginning with Origin, Weapon X, and Alpha Flight ending with him meeting Xavier.

And Cyclops and Jean should have their stories told in the first movie, with Sinister being the villain and catalyst for that.

TheUnworthyThor
TheUnworthyThor - 3/24/2021, 8:59 AM
@Godzillakartt - Yeah, the list is really getting way ahead of it’s self. These storylines can’t happen for quite a while for the to actually mean anything. I do think you have to have one X-men movie first though, introduce the idea of mutants and how they fit into the MCU, and then from there they can spread out quickly into Disney+ and really develop the world of mutants.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 3/24/2021, 1:25 PM
@Godzillakartt - I would loce to see the Brood. But the problem is the X-Men, at their very core, are all about protecting the people that fear and hate them. So I think its really important that the first trilogy deals with that theme.

My perfect idea would be that mutants are pretty much unknown to the wider MCU. Even mkst mutants don't really know why they have powers. Xavier's school is an outreach program to help mutants cope with their powers.

The first movie should be Sinister manipulating Trask in the government. He tells Trask that mutants exist and they will be the dominant species within 3 generations. So Trask outs mutants to the world and gets backing to create the Sentinels. Like Sentinels always do, even their cold logic can tell that mutants are just humans, so they start capturing and killing normal people also. Xavier takes his best students and forms a team to stop the Sentinels.

Part 2 should be Magneto. We see that instead of him being a WW2 concentration camp survivor, that he was actually held in a government testing facity that performed experiments on mutants and sometimes killed them on accident. This way he still keeps all his same motivations while not requiring him to be 80 something years old. He attacks humans because he sees the Sentinels as an act of war on mutants.

3rd movie we learn that in the first movie, Sinister was testing mutants and humans for the coming of Apocalypse. Apocalypse is the main villain.

In my eyes that would be a good first arc and put something of an ending to the mutants vs humans side of things. Then they can dig into more sci-fi stuff, like The Brood, Starjammers, Shi-ar, and literally anything else they would want to do.
KiddSoul
KiddSoul - 3/24/2021, 9:43 AM
Leading up to an Avengers vs. X-Men story on film would be so cool. There are numerous ways they can explore creating incidents in the MCU that lead up to that.
1) First of all, The general public and government's unease with mutant's. Which lead The Avengers to investigate...
2)The Morlocks appearance thought to be of an alien origin. Reason for Avengers to get involved...
3)The incident with Rogue and Captain Marvel. Etc...

I would be for all of these incidents to play out over the course of an MCU Phase before we get an Avengers Vs. X-Men.

JFerguson
JFerguson - 3/24/2021, 9:53 AM
I'm just in it for the banter


JFerguson
JFerguson - 3/24/2021, 1:18 PM
@Waddles - Absolutely this. It doesn't help that Scott did nothing but mope over Jean in the Fox-men films.

I also hear Scott and Logan shag each other in the new comics run so that's something to look forward to hehe
slickrickdesigns
slickrickdesigns - 3/24/2021, 10:52 AM
I wouldn’t mind them just starting off the X-men based on this classic. Which could showcase the new crew of mutants saving the old crew.



Maybe mix in a little bit of the X-men #1 for flashbacks of the first team.

1AboveAll
1AboveAll - 3/24/2021, 11:55 AM
This will be a test for Marvel getting mutants in, some people aren't going to be happy and some will be delighted
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