‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ – Get Ready For A Ton Of Jennifer Lawrence And Michael Fassbender
If you were hoping that X-Men: Apocalypse would focus a bit more on the wide world of mutants outside of the ones already explored to death in previous X-Men films, sorry. A new report claims that X-Men: Apocalypse will have a heavy focus on Magneto and Mystique, because they’re played by the two biggest stars in the series.
It’s not a lot to go on, but a new report from the Hollywood Reporter should just about silence any notions you might have had that the mutant myriad that makes up the X-Men franchise would get a greater spotlight in X-Men: Apocalypse. Apocalypse, which will put the capstone on the second X-Men trilogy, is reportedly going to focus heavily on the romantic ties between Mystique and Magneto, and probably give some screen time to Beast as a third wheel to the pair.
Why the Magneto-Mystique myopia? It’s as easy as looking at the actors who play those roles. Michael Fassbender has admittedly brought a certain verve to Magneto that even Sir Ian McKellen wasn’t able to accomplish in the first X-Men trilogy. Plus, he’s been up for an Oscar. Meanwhile, Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is the biggest starlet of her generation, social media user or not.
Fox is looking to make X-Men: Apocalypse a franchise to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s likely that the film will kick off a whole host of X-Men spinoffs, likely including a new Wolverine movie and a Gambit solo flick. To make sure Apocalypse succeeds, the new report says Fox “will take full advantage of Lawrence and Fassbender’s star power, placing Mystique and Magneto’s romance front and center.”
There have been previous reports, of course, that X-Men: Apocalypse would finish off the story that began with X-Men: First Class, and that, of course, would require centering at least on Xavier, Mystique, and Magneto. Some had hoped, though, that Fox would take the opportunity to focus on any number of the literally hundreds of characters Fox has at its disposal thanks to its grip on Marvel’s X-Men franchise.
It’s not to be, though, as star power will apparently hold sway over fans’ desire to see new mutants doing something other than briefly showing off their cool powers before dying to save the main leads.
At least, though, with Mystique and Magneto at the center of X-Men: Apocalypse, that means Wolverine likely won’t be the main recipient of screen time. That would make Apocalypse only the second of what will by then be nine X-Men films that doesn’t focus heavily on Wolverine. So there’s that.
One can also hold out hope that the casting directors will make a good choice for Apocalypse, the millennia-old Egyptian uber-mutant that will be the main villain for the film. Apocalypse has the potential to be the best villain the X-Men have ever faced on film, so long as Fox doesn’t make a silly choice in casting the role.
