X-Men Rumors Prove Disney Has No Idea What It’s Doing
The X-Men are coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while we’re all waiting for Deadpool and Wolverine to make it official, rumors are already flying about what will follow. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, Marvel has a short-list of potential writers for the stand-alone X-Men film, which is good news, but the names on the list are bad news. The two names shared by Sneider are Michael Lesslie, who wrote Assassin’s Creed and 13 Livers, among others, and Rafe Judkins.
If you just read the name Rafe Judkins and wanted to scream, then you must be a fan of the Wheel of Time novels like I am, which is why you know this is potentially a very, very bad move.
Wild Changes From The Source Material
There are worse writers out there than Rafe Judkins, and I want to make that clear right off the bat, especially given his involvement in the underrated horror series Hemlock Grove. He also wrote a baker’s dozen episodes for Chuck, and while he can churn out decent original screenplays, Judkins’ skillset is not with adaptations. Judkins was the showrunner of The Wheel of Time for its entire run, and if he does to the X-Men movie what he did to that adaptation, get ready for a world where Magneto is preaching peace, and Charles Xavier wants to destroy all humans.
Big Budget Fan-Fiction
To say that The Wheel of Time took creative liberties with Robert Jordan’s epic series would be an understatement, especially in Season 2, when Rand al Thor fakes his death, winds up in Cairhien, and is rebuffed by the False Dragon in an entirely original sequence. Eventually, he ends up in the same place as the books, but the journey to get there is more fan fiction and less big-budget adaptation. Thankfully, the X-Men have plenty of wiggle room as they join the MCU, but there’s a reason to be worried moving forward.
Marvel’s House Style
Part of the problem Marvel is running into right now with the X-Men movie is a self-inflicted wound. By insisting on a “Marvel-style” for all of the films, the creative visions of gifted filmmakers like Sam Raimi (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and Chloe Zhao (The Eternals) were stifled, and even a force of nature like James Gunn ran into issues getting his vision across. If what Disney/Marvel wants from a script is something fairly cookie-cutter that will slot right in, Judkins isn’t a bad choice; again, everything he’s done has at least been watchable (and I’ll admit, I enjoyed Uncharted).
All Downhill After Endgame
Ever since Avengers: Endgame, Kevin Feige’s magic touch at keeping every part of the MCU moving in concert has seemingly vanished. The X-Men will be joining an MCU that’s not the box office behemoth it used to be, and even die-hard fans are starting to tune it out, so when the mutants get their stand-alone film, it has to be perfect. You never get a second chance at a first impression, so this first film has to clear sky-high expectations.
Scriptwriting Is Hard And Fans Are Merciless
A pair of video game movie writers don’t exactly fill comic book fans with confidence. I know writing is a hard job, and I’ve been tasked with reviewing scripts in the past, so I know it’s a mostly thankless job, but just as I don’t want anyone involved with The Witcher to be adapting X-Men, I don’t want the showrunner from The Wheel of Time anywhere near Graymalkin Drive.
Potential X-Men Writers
As for who could be a good writer for an X-Men movie, if we’re dreaming here, bring in Craig Rosenberg, one of the brains behind The Boys and Gen V, who also handled the Preacher series. Doubling back on early rumors, hand the script and director’s chair to Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler. If you only get one shot, make it a good one because the entire fate of the MCU hinges on this one film being a hit.
