James McAvoy made an excellent Charles Xavier, and I shan’t hear a word against him. But I will hear—and say—some words against how that run of X-Men films failed to make the most of its central pairing: McAvoy’s Professor X and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto. Two of the most talented actors of a generation, and they’re sidelined for another watered-down Dark Phoenix story that isn’t even really about Jean Grey? C’mon, kids.
Turns out, McAvoy agrees. (Well, maybe not with the Dark Phoenix part. That’s my own personal complaint.)
In an unsurprisingly charming new profile in British GQ, McAvoy makes a point of saying that he hasn’t got any bad feelings about working with Marvel Entertainment and 20th Century Fox: “It was one of the most positive experiences I’ve had with a studio. I don’t really [see them as just] money gigs. Days of Future Past I think is one of the better films that I’ve been involved in.”
But he goes on to say what we’ve all been thinking:
“My biggest criticism of what we did throughout the four movies was that after the first movie, we didn’t take advantage of the relationship between [Xavier and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto], which really formed the backbone of the first film. So it was like, why did we just eject that massive weapon?”
Why did we, indeed? If the films had kept that relationship at the center, perhaps the results would’ve been more First Class and less Apocalypse.
Will we ever see McAvoy and Fassbender go toe-to-mutant-toe again? Never say never. Like everyone who’s ever been in a Marvel movie, McAvoy denies having spoken to baseball-hatted bossman Kevin Feige: “I’ve definitely not got the call. And if I did I would definitely not be telling you.”
