Photo credit: Alan Markfield/Twentieth Century Fox
Here's a group using Cerebro you won't see being so chummy in the comics: (from left) Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, James McAvoy as Professor X, Lucas Till as Havok and Nicholas Hoult as Beast.
By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Quick! Name the X-Men still on the team after the events of the last X-movie!
If you can’t do it, you’re in good company. In the eight X-movies so far, we’ve seen the series rebooted (X-Men: First Class), the timeline re-written (X-Men: Days of Future Past), one movie consigned to the memory hole (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and another that breaks the fourth wall (Deadpool). Even the comics are no help; the X-movies, from their inception in 2000, have thrown X-Men history into a blender.
So, in the dreaded words of professors everywhere, let’s review. Here are the Dramatis X-Personae who will appear in X-Men: Apocalypse, premiering May 27:
THE RETURNEES
* Charles “Prof. X” Xavier, Erik “Magneto” Lehnsherr: These two characters have been in all six movies with “X-Men” in the title, although James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender play them in the past, while Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan play them in the present. (First Class takes place in the 1960s, Future Past in the ‘70s and Apocalypse in the ‘80s.) The two are usually played as former friends now at odds over conflicting philosophies, who must sometimes work together against a greater threat (when not trying to kill each other).
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Erik "Magneto" Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) becomes one of Apocalypse's Horsemen in the movie, something he never did in the comics.
* Raven “Mystique” Darkholme: An out-and-out villain in the comics, this shapeshifter had the good fortune to be played by Jennifer Lawrence in First Class in 2011, before J-Law became a superstar. Now Mystique is a lead character with Chaotic Good impulses and a romantic past with both male leads, because, hey, nobody puts baby-faced Jennifer in the background.
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Jennifer Lawrence plays Raven "Mystique" Darkholme in the movies, so she's something of a hero. In the comics, she's pretty much the worst person on Earth.
* Hank “Beast” McCoy: An original X-Man in the comics, The Beast has only made sporadic appearances in the movies. He was played by Steve Bacic as human in X2: X-Men United, and by Kelsey Grammer in full blue fur in X-Men: The Last Stand. First Class introduced a younger version (played by Nicholas Hoult) who became Professor X’s assistant in Future Past. You may recognize Hoult from Jaguar’s “British villains” series of commercials that also star Tom Hiddleston (who played Loki), Ben Kingsley (The Mandarin) and Mark Strong (Sinestro).
* Alex “Havok” Summers: Introduced in First Class, Alex also appeared in Future Past. He’s the brother of Scott “Cyclops” Summers and his power works in much the same way; the Summers brothers absorb solar or cosmic rays, and then expel the energy – Cyclops through his eyes, Havok from just about anywhere.
* Pietro “Quicksilver” Maximoff: In the comics, Pietro and his fraternal twin sister Wanda (a.k.a. Scarlet Witch) were introduced in 1963 as mutants allied (reluctantly) with Magneto, but then changed their spots and become Avengers in 1965. They appeared so frequently together in the 1960s and ‘70s that they were almost one word – quicksilverandscarletwitch – although as time went on Quicksilver became more independent and less heroic, while Wanda remained a mainstay of the Avengers. Well, until she went crazy. (Long story.) Anyway, both were revealed to be the children of Magneto in 1982 …
Which is no longer true. When Twentieth Century Fox acquired the X-Men movie rights, they claimed the twins because they are mutants. Marvel Films also calls dibs, as the siblings are more closely associated with the Avengers than the X-Men. So Marvel Comics has gone into the business of establishing that they aren’t mutants, nor are they the children of Magneto – they’re Inhumans, whose back story is being furiously re-written as we speak.
On the screen, Twentieth Century Fox is keeping Quicksilver (played by Evan Peters, and introduced in Future Past) as an illegitimate son of Magneto, while Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen, introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron) stars in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a product of Hydra experimentation. Wanda is simply missing in the Fox movies, while Pietro is stone dead in the Marvel ones.
Don’t think about it too hard.
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Quicksilver (Evan Peters) is alive at Twentieth Century Fox, and dead at Marvel Films. Deal with it.
THE REBOOTED
* Scott “Cyclops” Summers, Jean “Phoenix” Grey: Scott and Jean, played by James Marsden and Famke Janssen, were players in the first three X-movies and very similar to their comics counterparts. Both died in X-Men: The Last Stand, but cameos in various post-reboot movies have already indicated their lives are playing out differently. Tye Sheridan and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones) play them as teenage-ish in Apocalypse.
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Cyclops and Jean Grey were killed several movies ago when they were played by James Marsden and Famke Janssen. Now they're played by Tye Sheridan and Sophie Turner, and not only are they alive, they're teenagers.
* Kurt “Nightcrawler” Wagner: The teleporting German, played by Alan Cumming, had a star turn in X2. But that was then. His first post-reboot appearance will be as a younger man (but still a blue one) in Apocalypse, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee.
* Warren “Angel” Worthington III: Ben Foster played the winged X-Man in X-Men: The Last Stand, although he was never actually called “Angel” on screen. In the comics, Angel was a founding X-Man, who was later brainwashed into being Apocalypse’s Horseman of Death and transformed into the murderous, metal-winged Archangel. The character has never recovered from the trauma, and it looks like something similar will happen to the post-reboot Angel in Apocalypse, played by Ben Hardy.
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Angel (Ben Hardy) seems to be going the same route in the movies that he did in the comics. Sorry, Warren.
* Ororo “Storm” Monroe: Famously played by the famously reluctant Halle Berry in the first three X-Men movies, the weather-controlling mutant has only made a few cameos after the reboot. But in Apocalypse, a young Storm (Alexandra Shipp) gets recruited as a Horseman.
Alan Markfield/Twentieth Century Fox
Alexandra Shipp plays Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse. Hopefully she has a more authentic Kenyan accent than when the character was played by Halle Berry.
THE NEWBIES
* En Sabah Nur/Apocalypse: Apocalypse was created in 1986 to be an A-list X-Men villain – and he was for much of the 1990s. Born in ancient Egypt, En Sabah Nur (Arabic for “The Morning Light,” a reference to being the first mutant to arise) has blue and gray skin and has been responsible for all kinds of terrible things throughout history (disappearance of the Minoan civilization, eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, fall of the Mayans, Sodom & Gomorrah, you name it).
His powers are – well, traditionally they have been whatever the writer needs them to be for any given story. It hasn’t been consistent, which is probably one reason the character fell out of favor after the ‘90s. He’s effectively immortal; the X-Men have managed to kill him a couple of times, but he always regenerates. For some reason, he loves to transform/brainwash four mutants at any given time into his Horsemen of Apocalypse, to do his dirty work. In the movie, that will be Angel, Magneto, Psylocke and Storm. And under all that makeup, the actor will be Oscar Isaac, who starred as Dameron Poe in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac) has pretty much whatever powers the writers need him to have.
* Betsy “Psylocke” Braddock: Speaking of Psylocke, she takes some explaining. In the comics, Betsy Braddock was a white English girl – sister of Brian “Captain Britain” Braddock – with mental powers, who somehow swapped minds with a Japanese ninja assassin. (So, ah – look, just accept that Pyslocke is Japanese and roll with it.) Anyway, Braddock combined her mental powers with her new physical abilities to become a deadly psychic ninja, with an energy blade formed by her mind. (Again: Just roll with it.)
However ridiculous Psylocke’s back story is, she’s popular because she looks really cool and kicks butt. In the movie she’ll be played by comedian/actor Olivia Munn, who – it must be said – looks really cool and kicks butt.
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox
Psylocke is played Olivia Munn, who used to be a comedian. There's actually nothing funny about Psylocke.
* Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee: In the comics, Jubilee was a teenage mall rat in L.A. with the ability to generate plasma bursts – or “fireworks,” as we non-mutants call them. That’s not exactly a world-beater of a super-power, and the character only had a few cameos and scenes in the first three movies, with even those mostly ending up on the cutting-room floor. (For the sake of completeness, she was played by Katrina Florece and Kea Wong.) So for all intents and purposes, the Jubilee played by Lana Condor in Apocalypse is a new one for movie audiences.
X-veterans may be noticing someone important missing in the above, a someone with claws, attitude and excessive body hair. Rumor has it that Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) will make a cameo, but he won’t be a player in Apocalypse. After all, the room’s crowded enough as it is.
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