10 'What If?' Scenarios That Almost Changed Comic Book Movies Forever

Originally pitched as 'The Pianist meets the X-Men', Magneto's proposed solo spin-off unfolded between 1939 and 1955, focusing on the young Erik Lehnsherr's survival of Auschwitz and his first encounter with Charles Xavier, with the narrative's framing device allowing Ian McKellen to reprise his role as the older version of the character.

A 2009 release date was announced, but a combination of the 2007-2008 Writer's Guild of America strike and the general shrug of indifference that greeted X-Men Origins: Wolverine saw the project torpedoed by circumstances out of its control.

With the 'Origins' notion dropped, Fox instead decided to hit the reset button on the entire franchise and incorporated elements of the Magneto script into X-Men: First Class, which freshened up the entire formula by bringing in a new cast and some returning favorites. The work done by First Class and Days of Future Past rejuvenated the franchise, and the merry band of mutants remain one of Hollywood's most bankable brands.

Had the studio gone ahead with X-Men Origins: Magneto, the franchise could look entirely different today. Instead of basking in the critical and commercial success of movies like Deadpool and Logan, we could be getting X-Men Origins: Maggott instead. Things hopefully wouldn't have turned out quite so bad, but there's only so long you can run a successful franchise entirely on origin stories before audiences start to give up.