Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Casting Slouch: Rebooting X-Men Franchise Part 1



Finally! After years and years of nonsense and back and forth the Marvel cinematic universe is in the hands of Disney. It cost $52 billion which sounds like a shit ton, because, well, it is, but think of the future bank that can be made by having these movies under one umbrella instead of in Fox's hands. Reports stated that Fox wanted to focus more on news and sports which are two things I do not give a damn about. This means that things like X-Men, Deadpool, and Fantastic Four can now get a proper movie. In case you've forgotten there have been four films made in three different ways.

This got me into some hopeful and nerdy ass thinking. Does this mean that we'll be able to get a decent X-Men movie? Yeah, I know some of you have liked them but to me they are ass garbage and I would love for them to reboot the series. Like, a complete reboot. I do not want a single person associated with the previous movies near these. I don't want to pretend that I have to know that this may be a different universe (thanks, Logan).

I have made a list featuring my own version of what I'd like to see in a new series of X-Men films. The actors are for the most part under 30 years old and I am wanting it to be based closer to the old comic books before everything got so goddamn dark. You will notice some characters missing and that is because I want to use just the base team to start with and in possible sequels add more mutants.

Daniel Radcliffe as Wolverine. I know some people are already baffled. “Harry Potter is only 5 foot 5! He is too short to play Wolverine!” Actually, at his height he is two inches too tall to play Wolverine. Don't let Hugh Jackman fool you. He was a foot taller than Wolverine in the comics. That was one of the cool things about him. He was so small but one of the most deadly characters in the comic. I wouldn't even bring him into the story until damn near the end of the movie because I want a strong showing of others first and establishing the world that these characters live in. Which is the 1960's.

I don't want them going into Wolverine's past. I don't wanna see him as a kid. Nothing! I want him near the end of the movie getting his ass kicked on his birthday. That's a thing. Every year no matter where he is Sabretooth shows up and beats the shit out of Wolverine to show he can. That's it. This can even be a stinger at the end of the movie. I want Wolverine sitting in a cabin all alone surrounded by stubbed out cigars and empty whiskey bottles. Sabretooth walks in smiling and slowly closes the door as Wolverine's claws (ADAMANTIUM!) come out. That's it. That is all the involvement these two have in the beginning of this series because people still think they like Jackman as Wolverine but what they liked was the idea of him and what he could be which is what he eventually evolved into in Logan but to me was too little too late.

Keke Palmer as Storm. She is my choice until I can come up with someone better and anyone is better than Halle Berry as Storm in previous films or Alexandra Shipp from X-Men Apocalypse was nothing. In the earlier X-Men films Storm was portrayed as timid and quiet, once in a while reminding us why her name was Storm by doing things like making it foggy. And, uh, like...electrocuting Toad.

I have not seen much of Keke Palmer's work and really don't even know if she has the ability to portray Storm in the way I envision but honestly there aren't that many young, Black actresses that I know of to use. Some of them are already in the Black Panther film or are associated with other comic book related films and I am trying to not re-use people. For those that do not know Storm was born to a princess that was worshiped and had a lineage where some women were born with white hair and blue eyes. After some shit went down she ended up back in Africa and made it rain. Literally. What I'm saying is that she is far more interesting than the movies have made her out to be and I'd love to see a badass version of her in film form.

Will Poulter as Sabretooth. I've seen this kid in a few movies and like his look. I had no idea that he was so damned tall and that works perfectly in terms of him being Sabretooth. I do not want the bodysuit version of him. I want the Ultimate version for his look with the long hair and jacket. In the movies you never got to see him reach his full potential as a character. In the first film played by Tyler Mane he was just a damn near mindless henchmen and in X-Men Origins played by Liev Schreiber I liked his look but they eventually made him just seem crazy and petty. Sabretooth, for as insane as he can be, is calculating as fuck.

I think Poulter would be able to make this guy work and the idea of him versus Radcliffe as Wolverine in a later film is cool to me. Even without makeup this guy has a “Please stay the fuck away from me” quality to his face even though by all accounts he is a swell guy.

Click here for previous Casting Slouch.

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