Marvel Moving Towards Taking The “Men” Out Of X-Men And Making Them Sing?
It looks like Marvel will be taking "Men" out of X-Men when the group hits the big screen. And there could be a musical element as well
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Could we be seeing a major change with the X-Men once that group first and finally hits the big screen within the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Some recent changes and promotions at the top of Marvel Studios would suggest the group, specifically, its name will look a lot different when they are folded into the action. Bounding Into Comics is reporting that with Victoria Alonso being named the President of Physical, Post Production, VFX, and Animation, this particular group could be looking at much different branding moving forward.
Some of this is conjecture of course, but things Alonso has said in the past in other interviews would suggest that she sees the X-Men as a name from a bygone era. Bounding Into Comics cited an interview she had done with Nuke the Fridge in which she said, “I don’t know where the future is going. It’s funny that people call it the X-Men, there’s a lot of female superheroes in that X-Men group, so I think it’s outdated.“ She isn’t wrong. The group was formed on the comic book pages nearly 60 years ago, back in 1963, and at the time it was (mostly) true. The first iteration of the X-Men was Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and Marvel Girl. So mostly men. But as their ranks have grown, so have the number of women in the group. The latter remain some of the most powerful out there.
Now, because the X-Men are named for Professor Charles Xavier’s (Professor X) tutelage, the name is probably pretty easy to change. And frankly, even in the movies, the moniker was used more from a branding perspective than anything else. The name “X-Men” is barely uttered in any of the flicks. Would some fans throw a fit if Marvel decided to just go with a totally new name? Probably, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. The real payoff is getting this group of characters on screen in some fashion, name be-damned.
Additionally, it’s unlikely we see an actual X-Men movie in the near future anyway. It’s much more likely that we see characters introduced along the way slowly, brought into different stories, with a variety of solo films. That’s how they handled the Avengers to start, how they are building towards a new supergroup and it just wouldn’t be the Marvel way to have the X-Men come out all at once and then splinter. The Eternals are doing it that way, but that group is much less well known than the X-Men.
As for the singing? Well, that looks like something else that Alonso wants to bring into the Marvel mix. In the statement she released about her promotion to President in this role, she had a number of things to say about her vision of the future for Marvel. One of them came towards the end when she said, “I’m especially thrilled about ramping up our studio’s animation efforts, which is a personal passion of mine. Look forward to more singing!…” Does that mean Wolverine The Musical? Probably not, though we know that if they brought back Hugh Jackman he could definitely pull it off. More likely, she is meaning that the size of the universe, between live-action and animation, big screen and small screen, will lend itself to all manner of production. There is likely something in the works along these ends.
In all, we could be getting a different name for the X-Men when it is all said and done. Considering Stan Lee originally wanted to just call the group “The Mutants” we could just simply head back to that and be done with it. Maybe they will sing their way into style when they finally enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
