The much anticipated trailer for
X-Men: First Class was released earlier today. It was followed by mixed reactions with some fans losing their negative views on the movie. The thing that got most fans excited was Michael Fassbender, who will be portraying the future villain Magneto. I may not have been one of the fans to take back his words of negativity for the movie, but I too was geeking out over Fassbender as Magneto. This of course got me thinking why didn't they go through with the planned Origin film for the character?
Now I am fully aware that a good deal of
X-Men: First Class will be spent on the origins of both Erik Lehnsherr(Magneto) and Charles Xavier(Professor X). But why would they sacrifice a movie that could be played out so well?
X-Men: First Class has fans of the comics going nuts over continuity changes. The lack of favorite X-Men characters and the screwing up of others was what fans responded so negativly about. The movie features characters such as Angel Salvadore, who even the small amount of fans who have heard of the character were not to excited to see involved. Then came changing the age of Emma Frost so she could be a love interest to Charles, which broke Fox's own movie continuity as she appeared as a teenager who was rescued by Charles in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
But the biggest bomb seems to be not only leaving out a major and original member of the x-men team, Cyclops due to being to young(though he was with Emma in Wolverine and about the same age too) but to include his brother Havok. Now I am sure there will be at least one or two peole asking why this is a big deal, but its probably because Havok is Cyclop's little brother which would make him less than a thought at that point in time.
So now I am sure your wondering what this all has to do with Magneto? Allow me to answer.
The X-Men franchise ruined their shot at making a movie prequel that featured the original members of the team without rebooting or destroying their continuity(which they are doing any way). But one thing did remain solid, Magneto's origin. All we saw out of Magneto's past was him being carted off to Auschwitz during the Nazi Regime.
So even after screw ups that prevented some members of the team joining when they were supposed to, they still could have had a solid and comic friendly version of Magneto's past that wouldn't screw up what Fox had already created. Now I know they still have a chance with
X-Men: First Class to make a solid back story for Erik Lehnsherr, but why displease a good amount of fans by adding it to a story that only has so much time to tell one of comics most popular origins?
They already had a
Magneto movie planned, and had plenty of source material to work with. Now one of my favorite stories in my eight years of reading comics was a story called
X-Men: Magneto Testament. This series chronicled the early life of Erik Lehnsherr from his first experience with the Nazi Regime as well as his many years spent Auschwitz.
This could have served as a fantastic starting point for a solo
Magneto flick that could also leave off from the beginning of the events of
X-Men: First Class, so the studio could get a double payday. But instead they are giving less screen time to explain the story of the most popular villain in comics.
Magneto could have handled his own solo movie without question. It could have been Fox's chance to easily deminish the negativity of their
X-Men for at least one movie. Magneto deserves the big screen treatment not only because he was their since day one of The X-Men but also because his origin can tell a very compelling story that Fox would not be required to change due to their own movie continuity.