The New Mutants trailer suggests Fox has got the right idea regarding where to take its X-Men movies. New Mutants looks promising—it’s the most dramatic departure from what we’ve come to expect from Fox’s X-Men movies and, as far as I know, it isn’t tied to any of them canonically. It’s a straight-up horror film, where the bulk of the narrative seemingly takes place in one location.
Although Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was an inspired choice in the original X-Men movie series and the social activism allegories were realized pretty well, even the best of The X-Men pictures hardly resembled the celebrated source material. Fans of the comics felt X-Men producer Bryan Singer fucked things up for a long time.
Eventually, Synger made enough of them that even Wolverine wasn’t enough to spare general audiences from mutant antipathy. With Logan, Jackman officially bowed out of the role, pulling the rug from under the mediocre series. So how do you press on without the Fonze of your franchise? You Deadpool real hard and redefine conventions.
I know Singer is currently developing a rehash of The Dark Phoenix Saga, but the X-Men properties that get the most buzz these days are the ones that have the least to do with the main roster. For example, Legion is a brilliant show on FX about a young mutant battling schizophrenia. The well-received The Gifted takes place in an alternate timeline connected to the movies where the X-Men no longer exists. Deadpool and Cable are carrying the conventional superhero blockbuster load as Fox sets up an X-Factor franchise.
While I’d love to see a faithful adaptation of the A-listers, both the studio and the comic book fans need a breather to get over Singer’s work before going back to the havoc-wreaking Canadian tank in yellow spandex, a Storm who is the take-no-nonsense Nubian badass, or a weird cosmic melodramatic adaptation of the Phoenix saga.
For now, I say kill the Bryan Singer-verse. Don’t worry about connecting films or setting up new sequels—just play in the sandbox. There’s a lot of things to vibe with in X-men mythology and the studio should have their fun and get their kinks out.
