‘X-Men' at 25: How the game-changing franchise established Marvel movies — and was largely snubbed by the Oscars
It should be noted off the top that Blade ice-skated uphill so that X-Men could run downhill to franchise-launching success. Wesley Snipes' 1998 vampire movie brought the comic-book movie genre back from the brink of extinction courtesy of the mega-bomb that was 1997's Batman & Robin. Blade was also the first Marvel Comics-derived film that didn't fall into direct-to-video hell like failed versions of Captain America and The Punisher, and Roger Corman's never-released take on the Fantastic Four.
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Still, X-Men's existence was far from guaranteed even after Blade pointed a way forward for Marvel. Director Bryan Singer had been attached to the project since the mid-'90s, but 20th Century Fox executives were skeptical about the movie's commercial propsects — and nervous about the budget. Multiple drafts of the script were written and rewritten with the input of such big-name screenwriters as Christopher McQuarrie and Joss Whedon, as well as such comic legends as Chris Claremont.
The tinkering continued as the film went into production, with several VFX-intensive sequences — including a set-piece set inside the Danger Room, a training ground for the titular team — scrapped to save on the bottom line. But the key to the movie's success proved to be the cast rather than the action. Singer secured Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen as friends-turned-ideological enemies Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto, respectively, and their gravity as performers lent the movie a dramatic weight.
Meanwhile, a twist of fate gifted Singer with the actor who would come to define the X-Men franchise. Originally, Dougray Scott had been cast as Wolverine, the mysterious mutant from the Great White North whose skill set includes razor-sharp claws and a handy healing factor. But the Scottish actor had to complete his role as Tom Cruise's foil in Mission: Impossible 2 before making his way to X-Men's Vancouver set, and the John Woo-directed film ran into substantial delays that necessitated a replacement Wolverine. Enter Hugh Jackman, a musical theater actor from Australia with limited film experience — but a whole lot of snarl.
Despite being the proverbial new kid on the block in an ensemble that included Halle Berry, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, and Oscar winner Anna Paquin, Jackman popped as X-Men's breakout star the moment he popped Wolverine's claws out between his knuckles. Even as the cast of mutants expanded with each successive entry, Wolverine remained the center of the franchise — and Jackman has yet to be replaced in the role even as other actors have taken on the mantle of his past and future teammates.
Released with minimal fanfare in a blockbuster-heavy summer season, X-Men maxxed out its box-office potential as an inaugural adventure for untested comic book characters, banking over $150 million to become the sixth-highest grossing movie of 2000. More importantly, it convinced the studio to make a sequel — and spend more money on it this time. X2: X-Men United debuted three years later and earned over $200 million. That kicked off a franchise run that ultimately spanned 20 years and 15 features and spin-offs, most notably Ryan Reynolds' misadventures as that merc with a mouth, Deadpool.
Along with the rest of 20th Century Fox's now-defunct Marvel series — think Fantastic Four and Daredevil — the series received a viking's funeral courtesy of 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine, which brought Jackman's alter ego back from the dead to close the door on that pocket universe.
While the X-Men became seriously popular with moviegoers, this particular comic-book franchise was never a serious Oscar contender — unlike the Batman series or the mainline Marvel Cinematic Universe entries. The original film largely settled for awards recognition outside of the Academy Awards sphere. For example, Jackman was awarded Best Actor by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror; Marsden and Rebecca Romijn won supporting actor statuettes from the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards; and the film itself scored a Best Movie nod at the MTV Movie and TV Awards.
But some post-2000 installments did break through into the Oscar race. Here's a quick recap of the X-Men and X-Men adjacent films that voters put in contention.
20th Century Fox certainly didn't stint on the VFX for this massive team-up adventure that brought together the casts of the original X-Men trilogy, as well as the prequel series that launched with 2011's First Class. Singer returned behind the camera for the first time since X2 and Jackman heads up a super-sized ensemble that crosses universes and time periods. It's not as smoothly engineered a crossover as the first Avengers movie, but it's much more fun than Justice League. Other nominees: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar (winner)
Jackman's solo Wolverine trilogy had a mixed track record, but the final installment is widely-regarded as one of the best superhero stories committed to the big screen. Jumping forward in time to a dystopian future where mutants are largely distant memories, Logan has to save the next generation of his kind even if it means he himself won't live to see a better tomorrow. Director James Mangold and co-screenwriters Scott Frank and Michael Green craft a narrative that's part Western, part Moses story and entirely gripping. Other nominees: Call Me by Your Name (winner), The Disaster Artist, Molly's Game, Mudbound
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