MCU: Should X-Men Start On Streaming Over The Big Screen?
There have been plenty of highs and lows when it comes to the X-men franchise. Fox heavily invested in Wolverine, but the rest of the X-men movies got a little sloppy. Fan demand was the main reason for a Deadpool film, but even then they weren’t 100% on board. Now that Disney owns the rights, should they introduce their biggest characters on streaming first?
Consider the fact that the mutants have gone through multiple iterations the same way Spider-man has with Sony. Their backstories have been rehashed so many times in the same way that audiences might feel they’ve become stale. There lies their biggest problem. Either we get yet another origin story for each character, or they gloss over it and never develop the characters.. for the casual audiences.
Warner Bros. is currently struggling with the same issue. They’ve told and retold the Superman and Batman stories so many times, by the time the audiences see another movie they’re already over it. It’s hard to invest in the same stories you’ve seen time and time again.
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Imagine an X-men universe where you get an 8-10 episode origin story of Cyclops, much like Netflix did with their Marvel properties like Daredevil and Jessica Jones. You wouldn’t have a movie with 45 mins to an hour of origin story only to grow the main plot point. Even if they only focus on the core group, the ability to get more in-depth with each character is expanded if they each were given their 8 episode story arc.
If Marvel and Disney have plans for them in the future of the MCU there’s no holding them back. If WandVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier can transition between streaming and box office, then why can’t X-Men? There’s a whole universe here waiting to explore and right now Marvel doesn’t have nearly as much going on in the MCU as their Star Wars slate.
X-men deserves the type of storytelling that doesn’t skimp on the details. Disney needs to invest more than just a gloss over or in the background of their other superhero projects. Would you watch a Disney+ version of X-men or are they destined for the big screen?
Rick ODonnell aka Caveman Rick has many years covering the Miami Dolphins, Sports, and all sorts of movies and television.
