8. All The Shout Outs To The Cartoons (X-Men, X-2)
Whilst it was the Civil Rights parallels that finally got Bryan Singer on board with directing the first X-Men film, he didn't get there by the producers simply explaining their existence to him. He eventually broke and dove into the vast history of the X-Men himself, in two ways. First, he read the comics, with the iconic God Loves, Man Kills playing a key role, eventually adapted into X-2. The second was he watched the fantastic (if somewhat dated) animated series from the mid-nineties, which turned on a whole new generation of young fans to the characters. Obviously owing a debt to the cartoon, Singer paid it back by giving multiple actors from it cameos in his live-action films. The trucker who picks up Rogue in the first film? That's George Buza, the voice of Beast. Meanwhile two stars from later series X-Men Evolution turn up in X-2: David Kaye (Professor Xavier) appears as a TV announcer, and Chiara Zanni (Jubilee) is a White House tour guide.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
