12 Easy Solutions To Save The X-Men Franchise

Simon Kinberg and returning director Bryan Singer have been the central creative force behind the X-Men movies for a number of years now… and Singer’s made it perfectly clear that he’s got no investment in the X-Men franchise, banning the comic books from the set and going on record in 2004 and again this year as saying he wanted to get away from it and do something else.

As far as Kinberg goes, it beggars belief that people are still allowing him anywhere near this franchise now.

Let’s not forget, he was at least partially responsible for X-Men: The Last Stand. By now it’s fairly common knowledge that director Brett Ratner, with no prior knowledge of or interest in the X-Men, left huge chunks of story development up to Kinberg and fellow screenwriter Zak Penn.

They, in turn, bowed to Fox executives who demanded various changes occur - including Cyclops’ murder, forcibly inserted into the script because James Marsden had taken a job on the latest Superman movie. It was suggested that Cyclops wasn’t relatable to audiences ‘because they couldn’t see his eyes’.

Kinberg seems genuinely not to understand why it is that his movies aren’t working - let’s not forget the massive creative hand he had in last year’s Fantastic Four abortion, which was supposedly intended to bring the FF and X-Men universes together. After every failure, he chalks it up to experience and, inexplicably, is given the task of screwing up the next one.

X-Men: The Last Stand. Fantastic Four. X-Men: Apocalypse. These are all films written and mostly produced by Kinberg, all movies that have received some of the worst notices - from fans and critics - of any superhero movies in the last twenty years. Only Catwoman has done worse.

It’s time to admit that the Singer-Kinberg team isn’t working. Neither man has any investment in or passion for the X-Men as a group of characters, as source material or as a concept: it’s why so many things have failed in the journey from page to screen. Neither Singer nor Kinberg understand why ‘the X-Men’ works, and that’s the reason they broke it.

It can easily be argued that, together and separately, Singer and Kinberg are the creators of the X-Men franchise to date. Well, in that case it’s time to kill God, bury Him at a crossroads and salt the g*ddamn earth to make sure He doesn’t rise again.

Whatever the next X-Men movie ends up being, it needs to be brought to the screen by different people.