With the X-Men's latest outing getting so much critical praise, many people are wondering, where to now? Obviously, the after credits scene dictates that we will be entering a story dealing with the mighty mutant known as Apocalypse, but other than that, the future for the X-Men is a blank slate with many questions to be answered. What happens with Wolverine? Where does Magneto go? What does Mystique do? What's in store for the Xavier Institute? There's so much out there and it's all just so exciting, I felt compelled to share my humble thoughts on where it could go. So without further ado, here's my thoughts for the next X-Men film.
It all starts with a short narration by Patrick Stewart saying something along the lines of “Our history is not as you know it, and while some say only out futures can evolve, I know that so too can our past...”
1980 - The Xavier Institute is well under way now with a small student body of about 100. It's here where we meet 3 of Xavier's favorite students, Scott, Jean, and Ororo. They are all relatively young (17-20) and are his first official graduates as well as his first official X-Men along with his friend and confidant Beast.
Meanwhile, The Brotherhood has grown too. The events in DC were enough to stop Mystique for the moment, but with time she fell back into to old habits. Now she leads the Brotherhood with mutants such as Toad, Sabertooth, Quicksilver, and her VERY close confidant Wolverine whom she persuaded to join her ranks after saving him back in 1973. The two have an on and off romantic element and Logan and Victor constantly bicker, Victor wanting to be her right hand man.
But this leaves the question, Where is Erik? Well after DC, he went into hiding and found out about the ancient legend of En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse), one of the first mutants who would one day return and finally wipe out the homo sapiens. Somewhere in Egypt, Erik finds him and awakens him. The Age of Apocalypse is now. With Magneto as his first of four Horsemen (War), Apocalypse sets out to collect his army and begin the human extinction.
Xavier sees this all unfold through Cerebro and is off with his fresh new band of muties to stop them. Unfortunately, the trail goes cold until Mystique comes to him saying Wolverine has gone missing. It seems Apocalypse has found his four horsemen in the mutants Magneto (War), Gambit (Pestilence), Juggernaut (Famine), and now his final piece, Wolverine (Death). To make him even more deadly, Apocalypse has Gambit and Juggernaut steal a hefty dose of a rare metal known as adamantium (Perhaps from Fort Knox?) and has Magneto graft the metal to his skeleton (much like he did with the sentinels on the train in DOFP). Sadly, the procedure is just a little too much for Wolverine to bare and this causes his mind to snap. Apocalypse sees this as the perfect opportunity for him to totally brainwash Logan to become the perfect killing machine while his mind is so pliable. This is where is amnesia now comes from. Of course, it all leads to an epic battle between the X-Men, The Brotherhood, and Apocalypse and his Horsemen which is amazing.
In the end Apocalypse is defeated, Magneto rejoins the Brotherhood along with Juggernaut (who I forgot to mention has a couple of scenes with Xavier), Gambit befriends Xavier and a newly amnesia’d Logan is taken with them so Xavier can help heal his mind. The story focuses strongly on a young Cyclops dealing with the responsibility of being a leader and also on Xavier’s struggle to fully tap in to his full potential not only as a psychic, but as a father figure for the young mutants. While I love Wolverine, I think this new series can be used to focus on the evolution of the team as a whole, not just on where Logan came from.
So, what do you think?
This is my first real article, so please be gentle.