Superhero films have been around long enough for reboots to be par the course. However, no matter how much evolution takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fans will never accept the core characters of any particular superhero (or supervillain) team being left out. This neatly brings us to the latest revelation concerning the X-Men reboot and Magneto in particular.
According to the ever-reliable industry insider Daniel Richtman, Marvel Studios upcoming reboot of the X-Men will reportedly move forward without Magneto. The news, which was relayed via Twitter (courtesy of @MutantsUpdate), has, unsurprisingly, not gone down well with X-Men fans.
Magneto, who is a central figure in the X-Men lore, has never missed out on any of the 20th Century Fox X-Men films, so it makes sense why fans would be incensed by this decision. Of course, its practically guaranteed that Magento is just being held up to be introduced later on, but tell that to his biggest fans.
Anyone who’s been keeping up with the latest news will be well aware that Marvel is currently trying to course-correct for Phases Five and Six. Earlier this year, news broke that MCU’s newest star, Jonathan Majors, was involved in a domestic abuse case as the perpetrator.
Although Marvel didn’t rush to make the same mistake as Disney, it was rumored that the studio was looking for a contingency plan to replace Majors as Kang the Conqueror. Some claim that this has been looked into by the studio regardless, due to the performance of recent MCU releases.
Earlier this week, a jury of his peers found Majors guilty of misdemeanor assault and harassment, a decision that led Marvel Studios to sever ties with the rising actor. Now that Marvel has a “Kang problem” of sorts, it has resorted to getting its next big baddie from X-Men supervillain Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister.
Much like Magneto, Mister Sinister is fascinated by his kind (mutants), but he would rather experiment on them than protect them like Magneto would. This is where his conflict with the X-Men stems from. His ultimate goal is to create the perfect mutant weapon, and to accomplish this, he chooses to play God and hasten nature’s evolution process (think Josef Mengele).
Interestingly, Mister Sinister was supposedly going to be the overarching antagonist in the X-Men films, with Jon Hamm playing the role, but that never panned out. Now that the perfect opportunity has presented itself, Marvel seems focused on making this a reality, and honestly, it’s not a completely bad idea.
Magneto has served as an antagonist, and sometimes anti-hero, for decades, and a refresh of the X-Men’s main villain is long overdue. The fact that Mister Sinister allies with Apocalypse in the comics makes it much easier for the MCU to introduce him into the current multiverse storyline.
Of course, many fans (including myself) will be nostalgic for the brilliant performances of Sir Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender, but a time comes when change is inevitable. I think that time is now. The real question should be: who will fill the humongous shoes that Magneto will leave?
