Recasting Original X-Men Movie If It Came Out Today

Twenty years ago, the world was introduced to Bryan Singer's X-Men, a film that turned out to be way more important than anybody could have anticipated.

It paved the way for the modern age of comic book adaptations that are massively popular today, with the film itself spawning sequels, prequels, spinoffs and introducing us to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, one of pop-culture's most enduring and iconic characters.

If it were to launch today though - meaning the last seventeen years would have seen not a single mutant grace the big screen - the project would look a lot different, especially when it comes to the cast.

Studios are craving bankable franchises and cinematic universes now more than ever, meaning they'd look for actors who are either as young as the role will possibly permit or don't already have a big series they're committed to, ensuring they're able to work on film after film, sequel after sequel, for many years to come.

Then there are the obvious differences, like Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart now being far too old to play the versions of Magneto and Professor X we saw in that original 2000 movie - but how else would the casting call for the X-Men change, and who'd be most likely to land each role?

Here's how we would re-cast Bryan Singer's original X-Men movie if it came out today...

The character of Cyclops is a hard one to successfully portray on the big screen. It's no good just casting a charming actor with a twinkle in his eye, since you can't see the damn things - you need someone who can convincingly emote with their body language and facial expressions.

And not only does Matt Bomer look the part, but he can do just that.

Just watch him in The Nice Guys as a hitman pretending to be a friendly doctor; he says so much through his movements and presence alone, able to come off as cool, confident and magnetic all at the same time. Cyclops absolutely must possess those traits, given his romantic entanglement with Jean Grey; we need to believe that she'd fall for him despite his tricky... condition.

Elsewhere, Bomer doesn't have any franchises on the go aside from the dormant Magic Mike series, and his youthful face (the guy's 39, but doesn't look it) means he could believably play a character of Cyclops' age for a good few years.