The X-Men in 2000 was one of the first comic book movie films that hit the grand scale and today remains the only continuity from that era still standing today. This franchise has the opportunity to open a cinematic universe of proportions matching up to the success of the Avengers, if not more. Simon Kinberg at the WonderCon panel proclaimed about fixing past wrongs, in particular the Last Stand Phoenix saga, which holds great promise as it rewrites its "history" moving towards X-Men: Apocalypse. This acknowledgement and reflection is exactly what any franchise requires to continue and soar to greater heights and this article too shall explore some of the hidden advantages that this franchise must seek to address and utilize to win back fan's hearts.
Character Development
What makes most modern comic book movies hit home with mainstream audiences is its ability to connect and be relatable. What really worked for myself in the Nolan trilogy was how logical the storytelling was in Batman Begins. As an avid follower of DC comic book characters, I had always hoped to witness the realization of the all-powerful roster of Justice League heroes. In the wake of reports of WB studios developing numerous films and spearheading for Justice League in 2017, I couldn't help but ponder over the actual possibilities in such a target. It doesn't look good. Most unfortunately, these characters are all from highly contrasting backgrounds and I can't see any convincing way of ever making me understand and connect with all the cinematic characters simultaneously (as well as not looking like copycats of Marvel's Avengers). Nolan's top calibre storytelling of Bale's Batman was already quite efficient but as we all know, too much origin and too little actual hero time is extremely tiring. What lies here is a mindboggling conundrum in how to balance out successful character development that can make in audience feel with the character, as well as having them in their current timeframe of character with a prime success sample: Loki/Tom Hiddleston, whose prime motive and action scenes are fairly even.
The X-Men, however, have to their advantage, albeit a very coincidental MacGuffin, is that all the characters have the same scientific origin. There's no need for any of these genetically gifted characters to suddenly discover a new mechanical armour or an accident burn only half their face, and immediately followed by solo birthday parties and then their favourite hero simply forget their name all in a short space of time, purely to create an origin. These people have entire lives, like ourselves, to build up a sense of morality, a life ambition through various life experiences, where they can eventually "take a side". This allows for minimal scene wasting on origin, and much much more storytelling. Furthermore, as real life tells us, often morality is blurred and there truly is no absolute in determining good versus bad and more complex life stories give deeper meaning as to how certain characters become their current selves (and on that note, enough Wolvey).
Character Connection
In creating an interesting plotline, creating a cinematic world is a popular element in absorbing an audience. Whilst there really is no need to make every villain and character interconnected as a mentor, a friend, a friend's father or another workmate, to have cameo-like connections takes great skill to balance. Absolute kudos to the team behind the Avengers, which manages to creatively draw the first ever scenario that required a collective band of superheroes of such magnitude to work alongside each other. But why was it such a big deal when the X-Men already had a band of stars since the 2000s? As foreshadowed in the last section, each Avenger already developed a separate fanbase through its powerful audience connections and the X-Men has only slowly built this up over the years now. It has the capacity to operate in the same arena of stardom as the Avengers in the not too distant future. To ensure they can continue in this character driven direction, they must ensure that we can understand these X-Men and their life journeys.
The fact that Fox only has rights to X-Men and nothing else (I'm hoping they don't murk the waters with FF) is a positive position to be in, with the X-Men isolated as merely a breed of humans with an extra genome that somehow sprouts in a more beneficial direction than our common cancer (and no outsider distractions like a brand of superheroes that might just decide to eradicate them, I'm looking at you and your team Cap). With no superpower origin time wasting, this separation allows detailed exploration of interactions between X-Men and their surroundings, and with the expanded storyline into the past we're seeing more of the development of Professor X and Magneto, which is always a positive sign.
Story Expansion
Now that we have an entire band of entertaining skill sets working together or closeby, as well as a fortunate era of movie making technology, Fox needs to pursue more storylines that aren't all the same. Every time I try to think logically (cue people telling me these are CBMs), I don't understand why all villainous activity happens in New York or USA. The X-Men are already the most culturally diverse of all superhero groups, and The Wolverine (2013) already showed a sensible direction in what I've previously advocated in a life exploration that doesn't mean saving the world/America, AGAIN. It happens in Japan in a somewhat secluded section of society and explores the sporadic occurrence of mutant behaviour amongst normal lives. Fox has access to an untapped gold mine of story telling capability, and whilst I'm rather unfamiliar with mutant lore, I'm aware they can expand into X-Force territory and any other mutant group. This requires moving away from the repeated stories of the governments killing mutants (X-Men, X-Men 3), mutants vs mutants(X-Men 2), and needs more detailed storylines, and whilst DOFP dares to touch time travel, it is actually just another government killing mutant story. I would hope that after the altered timeline, it can explore more diverse possibilities such as exploitation of a certain skill, or even the storyline of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (never mind all the altered hero origins and bad CGI), or perhaps a story about a government scientist who discovers some life saving vaccine from mutant DNA that is passed to be implemented all over a country before hazardous effects suddenly emerge and a storyline similar to "I am Legend" begins to emerge and a few X-Men have to step in and reverse the effects (my own idea, I'm just daydreaming possibilities).
Once again, looking at how other CBMs are made for inspiration is no shame. The Nolan trilogy showed how one can utilise themes and carry an idea, whilst the Avengers each have their own personal demons. The X-Men franchise obviously hold characters of strong moral pride and so they have all the potential to expand into more characters for similar fanbase building.
I truly hope this longstanding franchise can continue in its journey into more terrains from the apocalyptic to the existential, but I absolutely believe it is well equipped in its ventures if only the producing teams can whip out the creative genius. Apologies for lack of fun and shiny images for those with ADHD as I am a fairly novice writer in this forum, but these are merely my humble opinions, share any feedback and thoughts below :).