In March of 2019, Disney acquired 2oth Century Fox’s film and TV content and with it, the rights for the X-Men franchise returned to Marvel Studios. It may be some time before we see the X-Men appear in the MCU‘s continuity but all the pieces are in place, so it will happen sooner or later.
With the dozens of amazing characters that could be brought into the MCU, they really are spoilt for choice with the stories and character origins that fans will no doubt see in the next few years. But what is the best way to re-introduce the X-Men to viewers? With an epic team-up or more character-driven solo movies?
10 Solo Movies: It Worked Before With The Avengers
For the years leading up to 2012’s Avengers Assemble, Marvel Studios took great care to introduce the world to their cinematic versions of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man in their own movies. This allowed audiences to become familiar with these characters before having them team up in their first epic crossover adventure.
The X-Men are built from a wide range of weird and wonderful characters that have decades of stories to draw upon and with the Marvel formula for their films already in place they could follow that formula again to great effect.
9 Team-up Movie: The Audience Is Familiar With Ensemble X-Men Movies
When it comes to pre-existing X-Men movies they have almost all been ensemble team-up films, so doing so again with a whole host of new actors in familiar roles might be the best way to show the differences between the MCU’s take on the characters from what has gone before.
Seeing the MCU’s X-Men in a way that is at once familiar and different could be an ideal way to bring in fans of the old series and others that have only seen the MCU’s other films.
8 Solo Movies: A Better Way To Build Up The Hype
With individual movies focusing on different X-Men, the anticipation for the inevitable ensemble movie will only grow with each new installment in the series. This is exactly what happened with the solo Marvel movies leading up to the first Avengers movie.
As each individual film focuses on the fan favorites like Professor X and Magneto, by the time we reach the team-up movie the audience will not only be familiar with the new X-Men but they will be anticipating their big-screen arrival as a team even more.
7 Team-up Movie: Marvel Already Knows How To Make Great Ensemble Movies
There are probably only a handful of people left in the world that haven’t seen an Avengers movie. Over the last decade, Marvel has proven again and again just how brilliantly they can make an ensemble movie. Balancing team-up action set pieces and giving all the characters in the film time to have individual moments.
Where so many other team-up superhero movies have gone wrong, Marvel seems to sidestep all of the problems other studios have fallen into with big epic superhero blockbusters. With Infinity War and Endgame under their belt, there is a high probability that an X-Men movie in that vein will be just as good.
6 Solo Movies: Taking The Time To Develop Characters That Might Not Get Enough Screen Time In An Ensemble Movie
The X-Men have a large roster of main characters that have been built up over the many decades since the comic was first published in 1963. The comic has gone through numerous creative teams and with each team, a bunch of new and astonishing characters was introduced.
With solo movies, they could really take the time to expand on some underutilized characters from the X-Men’s immense roster, giving viewers time to get to know them especially if they are not the legacy characters that have been mainly concentrated on in the movies up to this point.
5 Team-up Movie: An Epic Way To Bring The X-Men Into The MCU
As mentioned before, Marvel knows how to make a team-up ensemble superhero movie. These are usually massive sprawling films that are guaranteed blockbusters at the box office. By going straight in with a team-up there will be opportunities for some amazing set pieces, big action, and big character moments.
With a proven track record of sticking the landing when it comes to huge ensemble movies, Marvel will have all the confidence in the world if they decide to bring their vision of the X-Men to our screens in an epic team-up.
4 Solo Movies: Mutants Have A Long & Complex History
The more time for world-building the better. With over 50 years of printed history, there are a lot of stories they could cover but one thing that has remained consistent throughout the whole run has been the importance of the X-Men’s mutant identity.
Introducing the concept of mutants into the MCU is no easy task. The more time they take to set up how the world at large views them and how ordinary people react to the idea of mutants with extraordinary powers in their midst is an important piece of X-Men lore. Having lots of smaller movies to bring in these ideas and explore them fully will allow Marvel to build a fully realized picture of the X-Men’s place in the MCU.
3 Team-up Movie: A Great Way To Differentiate from Previous X-Men Movies
Having the same format as the previous series of films but introducing all the new versions of beloved characters is a brilliant way to at once remind the audience of the familiar while introducing them to the new.
The previous X-Men film franchise had been going for almost 20 years so there are a lot of previous films already exploring many of the characters likely to show up in the MCU version. By having all of those fan-favorite characters in one film they can set a mission statement about the new take that we are bound to see with a new series of films.
2 Solo Movies: A Way To Bring In More Of The X-Men’s Awesome Rogues Gallery
Given the long history of the X-Men in print, they have fought their fair share of villains. Whether it’s Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, or the Hellfire club, there is always a new and interesting villain to fight the uncanny group of mutants.
By concentrating on solo movies first viewers will have the opportunity to see any number of villains that the X-Men have faced, from the terrifying to the weird and wacky, in live-action for the first time. Some of these villains could even be used as setups for further films.
1 Team-up Movie: The X-Men Have Always Been About The Team
Ever since the beginning, the X-Men have always been a team book, sure there were breakout characters that gained spin-off’s of their own but at its heart, the X-Men is a story about a group of people coming together to fight the good fight for a world that fears and hates them.
The X-Men at its core is about the family that Professor Xavier creates from the outcasts in society. It is quite a powerful message and one that is sure to be at the forefront of any film adaptation that chooses to be an ensemble movie over a solo outing for any one character.