X-Men - The Series (general; ALL the movies)

[jo]

Most cameos simply try to wring out a laugh...

And established Hugh Jackman as the only Wolverine ever!

[jo]

With Len Wein, John Romita created the character of Wolverine. He was supposed to have designed the costume and clawed mutant look of Wolverine.

[jo]

[jo]

Ironic that Wolverine is celebrating his first movie today...

and at the same time, he is stopping filming of the latest Wolverine movie as a SAG-SFTRA member.


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

James Marden's memories of the first XMen movie --

James Marsden Says the Suits He and Hugh Jackman Wore in X-MEN Were Impossible to Move in; He Thought They Might Get Fired
Movie X-MenJames MarsdenHugh Jackman 4 Hours Agoby Jessica Fisher


The X-Men movies were pretty good, at least the first couple anyway. They introduced us to a cool group of mutant superheroes before we were inundated with comic book movies and heroes left and right. The first film, which was released in 2000, featured a star-studded cast that included classically trained actors like Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, as well as academy award-winners Halle Berry and Anna Paquin, and other major Hollywood stars Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Famke Janssen, and more. The movies were action-packed, and the characters looked really cool, but that aspect of the film came at a price.

In a 2020 video interview with Vanity Fair (via /Film), actor James Marsden, who played Cyclops in the film, opened up about the restrictive costumes he and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) had to wear, saying:

"Hugh and I, we put our suits on for the very first time and they were these one-piece, leather suits that had no side-to-side movement at the waist because it was all just one piece, and we had to vault over this wall and none of us could get over the wall because our suits were so stiff. Add to that, that I couldn't see out of these glasses or the visor that I was wearing. I've never felt less like a superhero. I think, at some point, we all were scared that we might lose our jobs on the first one."

He went on to talk about how uncertain the cast felt about making a superhero movie at the time:

"During the process, no one really felt like it was working. Like, this could be cool or it could be a disaster. And we had our premiere on Ellis Island, overlooking the Twin Towers with fireworks going off and it was just like, this is what I imagined when I was a kid of what Hollywood, or having success in Hollywood, would look like. It was pretty spectacular and a lot of fun to watch it take off. And then even more fun to step into the second one."

It’s cool that the movies ended up being good, and it all worked out with the costumes. X-Men is available to stream on Starz, and available to rent or buy on Amazon.

[jo]

[jo]

BuzzFeed Quiz
@buzzfeedquiz
How Many Hugh Jackman Movies Do You Know?
1:51 AM · Nov 19, 2023








JoAB
@joab46466753
·
4s
Let's start from the very beginning 🎶🎶
Snikt...snikt...snikt 🥳🤩🔥💥🤩

[njr]

Are we too old to ask for this for Christmas? 😂

www.kohls.com/product/prd-6474386/lego-marvel-wolverine-construction-figure-playset-76257-327-pieces.jsp

Nancy

[njr]

www.kohls.com/product/prd-6474386/lego-marvel-wolverine-construction-figure-playset-76257-327-pieces.jsp

[jo]

Comments from the wife of the late Len Wein, Christine Valada --

st

Bruno Porto
@portolandia
·
22h
E não é que aparentemente alguém está praticando revisionismo histórico e acrescentou o nome de Roy Thomas como um dos criadores do #Wolverine na Wikipedia? No site da
@britannica
e da própria
@marvel
(ainda) não conseguiram mexer...

Quote



Christine Valada
@mcvalada
·
Mar 27
Someone is going around to things like Wikipedia changing Len Wein’s entries to list the then EIC of Marvel as the co-creator of Wolverine and Brother Voodoo. I notice said former EIC does not brag about the pterodactyl he put into X-men with a name he stole from Tolkien.



Christine Valada
@mcvalada
·
10h
That information was “updated” at the beginning of March. It is a fucking lie.



Bruno Porto
@portolandia
·
10h
This post makes it quite clear,
@mcvalada
: fourcolorsinners.com/2023/12/29/such-a-shame-that-a-little-fame-and-attention-began-to-get-to-lens-head-on-roy-thomass-erasure-of-the-real-creators-of-wolverine/ via
@r_fernande_s
From fourcolorsinners.com



Christine Valada
@mcvalada
·
5h
Thank you. I suggest people go to an X-men anniversary piece Marvel published 20 years ago, if they want to read Len Wein’s account, which has never changed. Nor did he suffer from the kind of ego that saw him take credit for creating credit for characters in books he edited.



Christine Valada
@mcvalada
Oops, the Marvel piece is from 1993, 30 years ago. Long before Hugh Jackman (a most lovely man) came into the picture and really carried the character to the stratosphere. It was about the time the animated X-men got under way.

[jo]

If there is anyone with whom the success of the XMen franchise can be attributed but who remains behind the scenes -- it must be Lauren Shuler Donner, talent scout of Hugh Jackman...and Kevin Feige!

Here's an article from Vanity Fair on her professional background from 2017 ( the time when LOGAN had been released) --

The Woman Behind the X-Men Reveals How the Mutants Got Their Groove Back
Between Deadpool, Logan, and Legion the mutants are suddenly back on top

BY JOANNA ROBINSON

MARCH 3, 2017


Lauren Shuler Donner, the producer who helped Twentieth Century Fox snap up the film rights to the X-Men characters 23 years ago, is the first to admit that her very financially lucrative franchise has had a few creative rough patches. “Just forget about X-3. And the first Wolverine [Origins]? Forget about that too,” she laughingly said during a red-carpet interview in 2014.

But a lot can change quickly in this superhero-clogged landscape, and the X-Men—who were once lagging a bit behind the Avengers and the Justice League—are currently on a roll. Deadpool smashed box-office expectations last year and earned actual Oscar buzz; the first X-Men live-action TV show, Legion, and the latest Wolverine installment, Logan, are currently garnering rave reviews. Less than a year after the critically panned X-Men: Apocalypse, the ever-evolving mutants have officially gotten their groove back—and without the two central characters who have gotten them this far.



“We cannot, once again, explore the Erik/Charles dynamic,” Shuler Donner said in a late-February conversation with Vanity Fair, about the intense frenemyship between Magneto and Professor X that has driven the bulk of the franchise over the past 17 years. The producer says this brave new Charles-and-Erik-less world is “both liberating and makes me nervous—it’s mostly liberating.” Charles and Erik are “always essential” to X-Men—but, she admits, “there are other stories to tell.”

Shuler Donner already had a successful, multi-decade career as a producer in Hollywood before Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Children was even a glint in her eye. (She’s fond of mentioning that she gave Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige his first job, as her intern.) But after a string of hits in the 80s and 90s, like Mr. Mom, Ladyhawke, St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, the Free Willy franchise, and You’ve Got Mail, someone in Donner’s office put the X-Men comics in front of her. Though she didn’t grow up with the characters, the seasoned storyteller could smell potential; long before Marvel Studios launched, Shuler Donner alongside Avi Arad and Stan Lee, helped Twentieth Century Fox lock down an entire multiverse of mutants. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man hadn’t even slung his first web for Sony Pictures when Shuler Donner, director Bryan Singer, and Fox took a big gamble on a pair of British thespians and an unknown Australian actor to lead 2000’s X-Men. “We thought, ‘That’s it, we’ll never work again,‘ ” Shuler Donner has said. But that gamble paid off—big time.




As of Logan, the franchise includes 10 films, not all of them hits. Still licking its wounds from the lambasted X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), the mutants got a very promising reboot in 2011 with an all-new cast in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Shuler Donner—who takes an active role in all casting decisions and prides herself on kickstarting Hugh Jackman’s career—struck gold again with a roster that included emerging stars Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and James McAvoy.

But last year, that new start came to a disappointing end when X-Men: Apocalypse became the franchise’s second-worst reviewed and domestically performing installment. But that blow was significantly softened for Fox and Shuler Donner by the overwhelming success of a risky, small-budget movie that premiered just three months before. Deadpool—the little R-rated movie that could—sent a message, loud and clear: the future of the mutantkind does not lie in revisiting the past.

Wolverine, Professor X, and Magneto don’t appear in Deadpool, nor in FX’s Legion—the new, explosively inventive FX series from Fargo creator Noah Hawley. The Shuler Donner’s X-Men couldn’t have asked for a more unexpected entrée into the world of live-action television. Dan Stevens stars as David Haller, a mentally disturbed young man who is either the most powerful mutant the world has even known—or it’s all in his head. Hawley told Vanity Fair that Legion’s unconventional approach to comic-book storytelling is an “existential exploration” of the superhero narrative with a “surreal or dreamlike quality. It’s not just about running and kicking. There’s, whatever, 9,000 superhero stories right now. They’ve got all the running and kicking covered. I think my goal with this is to do something whimsical and imaginative and unexpected.” The innovative series premiered to rave reviews, garnering praise even from TV critics suffering from superhero fatigue.

There’s another X-Men series in development at Fox, one that Shuler Donner admits is a safer, more straightforward expansion of the X-Men film franchise. From Burn Notice show-runner Matt Nix and Bryan Singer, the story reportedly follows a couple on the run to hide their mutant child, and, according to Shuler Donner, will include Sentinels—the oft-used, mechanical mutant-hunting villains of the early comics, the 90s cartoon, and 2014’s Days of Future Past. So why didn’t that more creatively familiar TV series come first?




“We thought if we’re going to go into television, then we better keep it far away from the movie universe,” Shuler Donner said of choosing to start with Hawley’s creatively ambitious Legion. Her preference is to give each new mutant their own particular genre to play and cites the noir-ish elements of James Mangold’s The Wolverine, the foul-mouthed comedy of Deadpool, and has hinted in the past that Channing Tatum’s Gambit will kick off with a street-level heist. “Our mandate was never to make the same story—they all have their own identities.” And now—increasingly free from the long shadow cast by Professor X and Magneto—the X-Men have more room than ever to explore just that.

As comic-book obsessives scramble to try to make sense of the X-Men film’s confusing timeline, Shuler Donner reveals that effort—though noble—is something of a fool’s errand. In the grand tradition of decades of comic-book storytelling, the X-Men franchise has adopted a very loose approach to continuity. In other words, don’t worry about how Patrick Stewart’s Professor X evaporated in 2006’s The Last Stand, then was back in his body by 2013’s The Wolverine without much explanation.

For the introduction of David Haller, a.k.a. Legion, Hawley has put the “uncanny” back into the X-Men. The character is the son of Professor X—but don’t expect either James McAvoy or Patrick Stewart to make an FX cameo. This world, with its outlandish fashion, is not only seemingly unhooked from time (“When does this take place?” Legion star Aubrey Plaza asked when she finished her first costume fitting) but uncoupled from the continuity of the film franchise entirely.

“It wasn’t intentional,” Shuler Donner says of the franchise’s loose approach to continuity. “I always imagined we would hew very closely to the comics. Then we just ended up going on a different path. Subsequently, I read a very interesting interview with Joss Whedon—who I admire immensely—who said as long you’ve got the essence and are working within that world, it’s all right to go and do your own story. As long as we tell stories that are somewhat close to what we’re used to reading, I think it’s O.K.”



Whedon, famously, became frustrated when his obligations to the continuity of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe wound up weighing down Avengers: Age of Ultron with world-building for future Avengers outings. The X-Men franchise now finds itself free from those continuity constraints. Because Legion’s David Haller will never team up with Wolverine, the mutants can sink into different tones and genres in a way that Marvel can only do superficially.

“I love to say that what’s great about Legion is that if you haven’t read a comic book and you haven’t seen an X-Men movie, you can come in and understand it—and this can be your comic,” Shuler Donner says.




So what, then, defines an X-Men property in this brave new mutated world? “It’s always about tolerance,” Shuler Donner says firmly. “We’re about outsiders and grounded characters.”

But that mutant-as-outsider metaphor, under Singer’s guidance, continuously circled the theme of gay rights. (Though Magneto, of course, also literally represents Jewish Holocaust survivors.) “I was sold it by Bryan, who said, ‘Mutants are like gays. They’re cast out by society for no good reason,’” Ian McKellen told Buzzfeed in 2014. “And, as in all civil rights movements, they have to decide: Are they going to take the Xavier line—which is to somehow assimilate and stand up for yourself and be proud of what you are, but get on with everybody—or are you going to take the alternative [Magneto] view—which is, if necessary, use violence to stand up for your own rights.”

In shifting the focus from Professor X vs. Magneto, the franchise can now delve even deeper into other metaphors of the disenfranchised. Deadpool (albeit in a lighthearted way) explores the shame of physical disfigurement. By casting a crop of new mutants as the offspring of young Mexican women literally on the run for the border, Logan becomes an immigrant tale. Meanwhile, Legion examines the stigma surrounding the mentally ill. “You want to walk a very careful line when dealing with mental illness, but you really can be an outsider,” Shuler Donner explains. “You see the world through David’s mind, and you are the ultimate outsider. He never knows what’s reality: is it the monster without, or the monster within?”

That hint at monstrosity also indicates that Legion is likely to go in a dark direction that matches the more mature tone of R-rated Logan and Deadpool. The character—traditionally more of an antihero or, if you prefer, villain—comes across as vulnerable and sympathetic in the first part of the series thanks, in large part, to a wide-eyed performance from Dan Stevens. “It’s a non-origin story in a fun way,” Shuler Donner says. “You get to know him before he fulfills what has been written for his character—which in the comics is a villain. What Noah added to that is that it’s a love story. You see that he has the potential to be a villain, but he also—the love story means his interest in Syd [(Rachel Keller)] is more important. So then the question is, did we change, or did we stick to the comics books? Tune in to find out.”

It’s tempting to concoct a tidy narrative where the darkness of Deadpool begat Legion and Logan, but both projects were already in the works when Ryan Reynolds’s Merc with a Mouth took home such an unexpectedly huge haul last year. (The pilot for Legion was announced way back in 2014.) Still, the unexpected success of Deadpool allowed Logan the R-rating Shuler Donner says she wanted for 2013’s The Wolverine—and with director James Mangold returning, Logan delivers on the kind of dark superhero tone that the latest Warner Bros. Batman and Superman films have been chasing all this time. Shuler Donner says that Mangold has a way of pulling out the best version of Wolverine: “There’s something about the combination of Jim and Hugh.”




And it’s not just Wolverine showing off his best side in this next evolution of the franchise. Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier is blissfully unfettered by his well-trodden relationship with Magneto—who doesn’t even rate a mention in the film. Instead, Logan explores the depths of the Charles/Wolverine dynamic as well as Professor X’s famous knack for taking scared new mutants (like Dafne Keen’s X 23) under his wing. Suffering from dementia and debilitating seizures, Stewart is basically giving us King Lear in the land of mutants, with a brilliant performance that’s already garnering early Oscar buzz. (Hey, if it’s good enough for Deadpool. . .)

James Mangold is far from the only exciting behind-the-camera name associated with the rapidly expanding franchise. [See the timeline below.] Though Shuler Donner declined to go into any specifics on the future of X-Men, she did confirm that Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars), Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods, The Martian), and Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces, The Grey) are all attached to upcoming X-projects. Boone may bring a funnier, younger touch to the increasingly dark and violent X-Men world with the traditionally lighthearted teen line-up of The New Mutants. “It’s going to be different,” Shuler Donner promises of his mutant take. And though, once again, it’s tempting to credit this influx of creative talent to the success of Deadpool (including its surprising Golden Globe nominations), Shuler Donner insists it’s always been easy to attract people to the X-Men. “The first two actors we cast were Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. Because we started so highbrow, we were able to get anyone. Plus, some of these people have children, and their kids love X-Men. They’ll do it because of them—that’s our little extra ace in the hole.”

Shuler Donner remains confident that the long-delayed launch of Channing Tatum’s Gambit is still coming. By focusing in again on a single mutant, that project, more than any other, has the potential to, like Deadpool, Logan, and Legion, push the creative boundaries of what we can expect from an X-Men property. But for all the success they’re having with these smaller, character-driven genre pieces, Fox is also, reportedly, looking to launch several new ambitious team line-ups which may or may not capitalize on the franchise’s recent exploration of new ground and fresh talent. An Apocalypse follow-up, potentially titled Supernova, returns to familiar territory with Simon Kinberg (writer on The Last Stand, Days of Future Past, and Apocalypse) rumored to make his directorial debut and potentially, once again, explore Jean Grey’s Dark Phoenix powers. But with Jackman and Stewart officially bowing out after Logan, it truly feels like a changing of the guard.

“I wish we had a plan in place and I could tell you that it was all planned out, but it really wasn’t,” Shuler Donner says of this new era. “I’d like to think it’s a natural evolution.” Call it evolution or call it mutation, one thing is clear: the X-Men are on the rise.

[jo]

I could not understand or appreciate the current negativity on social media re the casting of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and how Wolverine/Jackman became the pointman in the Fox franchise!

Many want other characters to have been the object of focus in the many XMen movies that FOX generated in its film library.

No problem with that... but sounding as if Hugh Jackman and his Wolverine character are to blame -- does not seem fair!

ATribeCalledStress
@jiggly_puffdady

Yes Wolverine was always the popular guy but he was never the main focus until the live action movies, Hugh Jackman gave a goat'd portrayal of Wolverine and the focus shifted to Wolverine. "Wolverine and the X-men" came out after the movies.



JoAB
@joab46466753

It also so happened that the first XMen movie with HughJackman giving an exceptional portrayal as Wolverine is recognized as having rejuvenated the moribund superhero movie genre! By the 2nd movie, HJ already enjoyed top billing. 1/2



JoAB
@joab46466753

The end of the Wolverine saga was well presented in the neo-noir LOGAN, arguably considered as not only the most compelling movie in the Fox franchise but also stood among the best in the entire superhero film firmament. 2/3



JoAB
@joab46466753

Hard to comprehend the negativity now on this development&choice of Jackman as Wolverine. If you were a producer/filmmaker,wouldn't you choose sequels&related movies to capitalize on what works w/ audiences&even w/critics?Who knows where the XMen would be without HJ in 1st movie?



JoAB
@joab46466753

From filmmakers viewpoint,what may work in the comicbooks may not necessarily work on film. It's their time,effort&money that they gamble w/in expensive films like superhero films, so blaming them for how a franchise developed esp in the light if its success seems ludicrous to me



JoAB
@joab46466753

Now, if they want to explore other characters for new movies, there is no need to justify that by blaming the focus on a very successful character in earlier films. See if other characters really make strong impressions as superheroes & if their stories work well in the movies.



JoAB
@joab46466753

Also, it is important to cast charismatic actors with strong acting chops in key roles so they can serve as anchors in any new movie. How to do that - maybe check how well they have done with other movies or mediums.Jackman proved his worth in other films/genres & even on stage!

[jo]

Post

Virgile980
@virgile490
Les rumeurs concernant Henry Cavill jouant un variant de Wolverine de Hugh Jackman dans Deadpool 3 me semblent être une bonne idée, car cela permettrait de voir un nouvel acteur dans ce rôle emblématique.

Translated from French by Google:

The rumors about Henry Cavill playing a variation of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in Deadpool 3 seem like a good idea to me, as it would allow us to see a new actor in this iconic role.



Replying to @virgile490 and @dylan_leibold

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
3m
Can Henry Cavill make it as iconic as HughJackman's exceptional portrayal as Wolverine? A combination of badass-ery/charisma/insouciance/humanity makes Jackman's Wolverine a great favorite.



JoAB
@joab46466753
·
5s
Can he deliver a portrayal like HJ did w/ LOGAN? He gave us a compelling view of his aging hero, as he tried to shield his mentor from harm, be in a circuitous route to recognize his daughter& give the young mutants the chance to grow up as the new heroes? What a performance 👏

[jo]

This is what DISNEY is planning to do with the reboot of the XMen movies --

X-Men Reboot
@xmenreboot
·
10h
NEW #XMen Reboot SCOOP!
- Marvel wants a writer than can handle both comedy and drama very well.
- focus likely on female characters.
- Will introduce a few characters we HAVENT SEEN in live-action before, along with "original members we all know and love."

source:
@danielrpk

Not favorable reactions from the replies!

My response on "X", where the same news was the subject of the post --

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
7m
Replying to
@beelenzies
@bamwhyyoudothat
and 2 others


Can't compare to the acting skills of originalXMen trilogy - 2 Shakespearean thespians (Stewart&McKellen/2 Oscar winners(Berry/Paquin)/2 Oscar nominees(Jackman/Paige)&range in other genres.That casting was a gift...contributed immensely to the rejuvenation of the superhero genre.

Even with Fox, the attempt to reboot - with Dark Phoenix & Apocalypse & The New Mutants- were both not generally accepted.