I am sure most of us know that we will soon get a chance to see Wolverine hack and slash his way onto the big screen next year. But another X-Men “spin-off” film was announced at the same time as the Wolverine project was. X-Men Origins: Magneto was to tell the tale of young Eric Magnus Lehnsherr, the man who would grow up to become a super villain and nemesis to the X-Men, Magneto. While we have had plenty of news coming from the Wolverine origin film, it has been silent on the Magneto front. So whats going on with Magneto? Well, Empire Magazine had a chance to speak to producer Lauren Shuler Donner. She gave this explanation for the lack of Magneto news.
“I think first we wanted to make Wolverine, and then David [Goyer, the attached director] took another film, and there wasn’t a lot of time,” she said. “But I’d like to make that – we’ll have to see.”
Sounds a little vague to me. Are they still planning on making this movie? Well, Donner said that there was a script written for the film, centering on the early years of Eric and Charles Xavier. But there was no further confirmation given. But good news, Magneto fans! Production Weekly has added a synopsis for the Fox film. The synopsis suggests Xavier meets Lehnsherr while he was a soldier in the allied force that liberated the concentration camps in which Lehnsherr is interred at the beginning of Bryan Singer’s X-Men. They bond after the war, but their differences quickly makes them enemies.
I don’t know about this. Sure, it seems like everything is in place for FOX to be able to fast-track a Magneto flick, but I don’t think the producers are sold on the film. I think they are waiting to see how the Wolverine flick does. Magneto probably won’t get green-lit unless Wolverine does well in the theater. Shouldn’t they have a little more than just a proposed script by now? They guys and gals working on Wolverine almost have the movie done already! Personally, I hope the Magneto movie gets done, and they don’t draw anything from the experience of doing a Wolverine origins film. I would love to see the early years of Xavier and Eric’s friendship. What I don’t want is for the movie to be bogged down by cameo’s that seem to serve only one purpose: to set up solo films.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to go see the Wolverine origins film. I love Wolverine. If done right, a truly great comic movie, a la The Dark Knight, could be made. Wolverine’s past is tragic, romantic, and very violent. But the movie seems to have cameo after cameo thrown in. I understand the inclusion of some characters. Those Marvel characters originally involved in Weapon X like Wolverine was, they belong. It will be great to see Deadpool on the big screen, he has a history with Wolvie. But Gambit? The Blob? What’s the point of that? I don’t want to see Magneto’s film suffer the same fate. I don’t want to see Magneto lose screen time to “B class” characters just to appease fans. Please, if you do Magneto: Origins, do it right!
What do you guys think? Anyone still care about Magneto? Will this movie ever be made?