After X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine left fans feeling underwhelmed, 20th Century Fox decided to reboot the franchise with 2011's X-Men: First Class.
The movie took us back to the 1960s to reveal the team's origins and explain how Professor X and Magneto met. In its closing moments, X-Men: First Class saw the Master of Magnetism's hatred for humanity get the best of him as he inadvertently sent a bullet into Charles Xavier's spine.
They then went their separate ways, with Professor X forming the X-Men and Magneto creating his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The franchise would have benefitted from remaining in that period, but instead jumped from decade to decade and further muddied the timeline (all while the cast never aged).
Josh Horowitz recently spoke with Magneto actor Michael Fassbender and asked if he feels his time as Erik Lehnsherr has truly ended following the release of the poorly received Dark Phoenix in 2019.
"You know, I think we had a great run," the actor said. "I thoroughly enjoyed it. By the time Dark Phoenix was over, I was like, 'Well, you know, I was lucky: we had a fantastic run of it.'"
"I enjoyed the time and then it came, I think, to its natural conclusion," Fassbender concluded.
He played Magneto in X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix. While the Multiverse opens the door to a possible return, recent rumours point to Sir Ian McKellen instead reprising his role as the original version of that villain in Deadpool 3 and beyond.
"I relied heavily on the source material given to me," the actor previously said of how he approached the role. "Through Eric's past, one got to know why he did what he did, and why he wanted to eliminate the humans. What happened to him justifies his means to an end [and] that separates him from his longtime friend and rival Charles Xavier."
"There is a rich and traumatic history to his childhood, which explains where his resentment towards the human race comes from," Fassbender continued, later explaining why he never attempted to imitate his predecessor. "Ian McKellen is one of the greatest actors we had. I had the honour of meeting him during the shooting of Days of Future Past."
We're bound to eventually get a new Magneto in the MCU, though the character has received an awful lot of screentime over the years. With that in mind, utilising some of the X-Men's other foes would be welcomed by comic book fans.