Fox, we will forever be grateful for bringing us the X-Men, but so many were done wrong. There were X-Men who deserved better treatment and stories.
Who remembers sitting up, watching the late-night shows to see the actors who were going to star in the first-ever live-action X-Men? If you’re old enough to remember, I hate to bring it to you, but it was over two decades ago. Feel old, huh? Back when the world feared Y2K, the comic book movie fans knew were mostly DC. Wesley Snipes gets all the credit for Blade’s contribution to the reawakening of Marvel movies, but when we got to see The X-Men in 2000, it was euphoric for X-Men fans.
One of the biggest stars to come out of the series was Hugh Jackman, who of course played Wolverine. Fun fact, Dougray Scott was cast in the role but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with his filming of Mission: Impossible 2.
Turns out, Jackman was the perfect Wolverine, save for being 6’2″ — we got over it. Wolverine has lived on for more than 20 years and is set to appear in Deadpool 3. But Jackman’s casting wasn’t the only perfect match.
Halle Berry got the role of Storm and killed it. Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen were perfectly cast as Professor X and Magneto and Famke Janssen played a great Jean Grey.
Despite the casting of the original film and every film over the last 20-plus years featuring some amazing characters and casting choices, there are some X-Men that were vastly misused, mistreated, and simply deserved better. In truth, the X-Men is a universe all its own. Its vastness deserves to be properly introduced including a miniseries. It’s the only way to truly flesh out these characters.
With that said, one name you won’t see is Quicksilver. While he almost made this list thanks to the MCU’s tragic treatment, Evan Peter’s Fox version was fantastic. There was another member of the Brotherhood in the MCU that got a lot of love, but was still disrespected. The Sentinels almost made the list, but they are Mutant killers so they get no love here.