TheX - Menfranchise could potentially have rivaled the MCU if twentieth Century Fox had adopt Matthew Vaughn’sX - Men :   First Classplans . There ’s a strong sensory faculty in which the Marvel Cinematic Universe would n’t survive without the 10 - Men cinema . Marvel Comics only survived near - failure in the ' 90 byselling off the motion picture rightsto some of its most notable characters , including Spider - Man and , of course , the X - Men . What ’s more , many key figures in Marvel Studios cut their teeth on the ten - Men films , including even Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige .

And yet , since 2008’sIron Man , the MCU has outclass Fox ’s X - Men dealership . The key difference has essentially been that Marvel Studios play the recollective plot , build a divvy up cinematic cosmos where each film take on to the next , culminating inAvengers : Infinity WarandAvengers : Endgame . In direct contrast , Fox has largely seemed to be responsive , jactitate numberless idea up into the airwave to see how they fall , rarely testify any horse sense of overarching narrative direction . TheX - valet de chambre films ' famous continuity problemsare really a manifestation of this core issue .

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But it ’s now becoming unmortgaged that one man , at least , did have a plan - Matthew Vaughn , writer and director ofX - Men : First Classand story author ofX - Men : Days of Future Past . Unfortunately , Fox opt to take a different approach , and it was a big mistake .

Matthew Vaughn’s First Class Plan Was Very Different to Fox’s

Vaughn has been relatively reticent about his X - Men programme , only latterly beginning to open up in any particular detail about them . So far , though , it appears that he ’d planned a serial publication of four picture show :

X - Man : First Classwas a huge success , and back in 2011 , Vaughn point that he wanted to keep the enfranchisement by exploringthe blackwash of JFK . " I think it would be fun to open with the Kennedy Assassination , " he explain toHitfix , " and we let on that the magic bullet was control by Magneto .   That would excuse the physics of it , and we see that he ’s make off because Kennedy take all the credit for saving the world and mutants were n’t even mention . "

Clearly , this cinema would have been set in 1963 , just a twelvemonth after the events ofX - piece : First Class , and it would have presumptively continued the floor of Magneto ’s Brotherhood of Mutants .   Vaughn desire to add two new characters to the X - Men team roster;a recast Wolverine , who he imagined played by someone like Tom Hardy , and another unnamed grapheme   who was designed to match Magneto . " As Professor X is in a wheelchair , Magneto needs to have a scourge he can fight with , " Vaughn explain toMovieWeb . " Someone that will be his equal . " It ’s probable this would actually have been Jean Grey .

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Vaughn imagined the stories gradually building in scale , withX - Men : day of Future Pastas the third chapter in his serial , rebooting the timeline ahead of a Modern variation of theDark Phoenix Saga . In his view , audiences call for metre to bond with Jean Grey as a character before of her evenfall . " It ’s arguably the big story in   X - gentleman’s gentleman , " he toldPolygon .   Unfortunately , Fox execs were impress by Vaughn ’s draught ofX - Men : twenty-four hour period of Future Past , and decided to jump-start directly to that . Discouraged , Vaughn moved on , although he seems to have been pleased with how director Bryan Singer and writer Simon Kinberg treated his story .

Days of Future Past Would Have Been Better Under Vaughn’s Plan

Vaughn has stressed that Fox mostly kept to his original script forX - Men : day of Future Past , albeit switch around a pair of lower-ranking character - notably substitute Quicksilver in the spot ofJuggernaut , who he had imagined being involved in demote Magneto out of prison . And yet , for all the script would have been mostly the same , it ’s hard not to see Vaughn ’s original plan as a better one . The key is in term of pacing , with a gradual increment in the stakes ; the impending difference between man and mutant would have been neatly signpost in the 2nd film , and there would have been a clear narration throughline , with Magneto involve in the Kennedy blackwash and imprisoned for it in the third installment . This also would have subtly rewrite Mystique ’s role , in that she ’d essentially have become more of a Magneto loyalist , continue his mission of assassinating gamy - profile political threat .

Most interestingly , X - Men : daylight of Future Pastwould have involved fundamental interaction between two different embodiment of the X - man . Xavier and Magneto , more unwaveringly prove as several leaders of the X - Men and the Brotherhood , would be faced with the outrageous reality of the world their difference of opinion would create . It ’s potential the two Wolverines would get along psyche - to - mind , in a standardized scene to the one in which James McAvoy ’s Charles Xavier met his succeeding self , played by Patrick Stewart .

The Wolverine Franchise Could Have Been Reinvigorated

Recasting Wolverine would have been controversial , of form , not least because this is a variation who is n’t really hypothesize to maturate at all due to his heal factor . And yet , Vaughn ’s way of doing it is probably the best . Fox would have introduce theirnew Wolverinebefore Hugh Jackman had bowed out , in much the same way Patrick Stewart was willing to reprize the purpose a duet of times afterX - humanity : First Class . A meeting between the two Wolverines inX - Men : Days of Future Pastwould have matte like the qualifying of the torch , from one loop to the next .

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The verity is that Fox ’s actual feeler , which remained dead dependent on Jackman , brought the Wolverine franchise to an end . Loganis Jackman ’s swan song , and honestly , it ’s arduous to imagine how Fox could have recast at this degree without it feeling like an insult to the character . Yet again , Fox had taken a forgetful - term approach rather than planned ahead , and it had cost them ; in this pillow slip , of course , they ’ve been spar further problem by virtue of theDisney purchase , which means a fullreboot of the 10 - Men franchiseis in the whole works .

x-men’s cyclops with spider-man and captain marvel-1

Dark Phoenix Would Have Been A Very Different Film

at last , Vaughn ’s design would have leave in a very different version ofX - piece : Dark Phoenix . It voice as though he design to construct up to this tale over the path of three plastic film , probably premise a newfangled version of Jean Grey in his second pic , and featuring her in a significant secondary part inX - man : day of Future Past . Indeed , it ’s potential the early manifestation of Jean ’s Phoenix powers could have been a side - force of the time travel ; perhaps she ’d have psychically probed the mind of the time travel Wolverine , and learned her portion .

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spectator would certainly have developed a far stronger resonance with the new Jean Grey , meaning her fall from grace would have had a not bad quite a little more emotional mogul . Meanwhile , it ’s interesting to note that Vaughn potentially sets up a far more comic - book - exact version of the story , with both ayounger Wolverineand presumptively another version of Cyclops in the team . give the increase scale of Vaughn ’s overarching story , X - gentleman’s gentleman : Dark Phoenixwould probably have work intothe full cosmic scale of the legendary " Dark Phoenix Saga . "

Nicholas Hoult as Beast in X-Men First Class With Iron Man

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The world is that Matthew Vaughn’sX - Menplan would have take the enfranchisement in a very different focal point - and a far more preferable one . It ’s straight that there were risks . It ’s exclusively possible viewers would n’t have taken to a recast Wolverine , for example , particularly given that character is n’t hypothesise to age . And yet , there ’d have been an undeniable sense of momentum , with the wager continually increasing ; grapheme discharge would have been far more constitutional , with Xavier and Magneto developing in logical and consistent ways , while Jean Grey ’s Dark Phoenix turn would have carried a greater impact . Fox had their own visionary , but they chose to neglect him , opting for the short - term win instead .

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James McAvoy as Charles Xavier using Telepathy in X-Men First Class

X-Men Days of Future Past

Wolverine Hugh Jackman in X-Men Future Past

Sophie Turner in X-Men Dark Phoenix

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