Fox Wasted The X-Mens Weirdest Supporting Character, But The MCU Can Do It Justice

Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot has the opportunity to bring justice to one of the titular team’s weirdest supporting characters that was wasted in 20th Century Fox’s franchise. Following the news that Michael Lesslie has been hired to pen the script for the X-Men reboot in the MCU, it may not be too long before story details and characters begin to be revealed. While the casting of the central X-Men team is hugely exciting for die-hard Marvel fans, Marvel Studios should also debut some of the team’s best side characters.

This could include a massive number of mutant characters who aren’t featured on the X-Men team, as well as several iconic Marvel villains, and human allies to the X-Men, such as Valerie Cooper, Moira MacTaggert, and Peter Corbeau, among others. Some of the X-Men’s most notable supporting characters have already had live-action adaptations in Fox’s franchise, but Marvel Studios can bring more comic-accurate versions into the MCU. This would benefit one of the X-Men’s strangest side characters, who was tragically only put to use twice in Fox’s X-Men franchise.

The Danger Room Was Only Seen Twice In Fox’s X-Men Franchise

The Danger Room is one of the most important locations for the X-Men, as it takes on the role of the team’s training room inside the X-Mansion. The Danger Room has been used countless times in Marvel Comics, but was only seen twice in Fox’s X-Men franchise. The X-Men practiced battling Sentinel robots in the Danger Room in the opening moments of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, and a new line-up of X-Men were seen in the room at the end of X-Men: Apocalypse, but the Danger Room’s true potential was completely wasted.

Initially, Marvel Comics’ Danger Room used physical traps, projectiles, flamethrowers, and mechanisms to enable the X-Men to practice what a real battle would be like. Once upgraded with Shi’ar technology, the Danger Room used holographic simulations to emulate real-world situations, which can be seen in X-Men: The Last Stand. The Danger Room was often used to allow Marvel Comics writers to open each issue with an action sequence, and has been the location of many fantastic moments, but Fox failed to demonstrate this strange supporting character’s importance.

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Marvel Studios Should Give More Focus To The Danger Room

When introducing its own version of the X-Men team, Marvel Studios should use the Danger Room as the original Marvel Comics writers did. The Danger Room can be used to drop audiences into fast-paced, high-octane action sequences straight away, without having the downside of inflicting real damage on the heroes. The X-Men team were almost never shown actually training in Fox’s X-Men franchise either, but this is clearly something that they would need to do practically constantly, so the Danger Room will be crucial in these moments.

Delivering sequences in the Danger Room will provide Marvel Studios with a great way to show off some of the new X-Men team’s powers that might not be seen anywhere else. This also creates the opportunity for moments of team bonding and relationship building. There is a huge amount of potential with the Danger Room that 20th Century Fox completely ignored. This could even connect to the wider world of the MCU, as one theory suggests that Tony Stark’s BARF technology from Captain America: Civil War could be the same technology used to build the Danger Room.

The MCU’s Danger Room Can Finally Become A Powerful X-Men Villain

As well as simply giving the Danger Room itself more focus, Marvel Studios also has the chance to transform the ordinary training room into one of the X-Men’s most interesting and powerful villains. This is where the Danger Room becomes a true supporting character, as 2005’s Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #7 saw the room gain sentience and take the shape of a female humanoid, who came to be known as Danger. Danger uses her position within the walls of the X-Mansion to manipulate and attack the X-Men, before leaving the X-Mansion and escaping to Genosha.

Danger posed a huge threat to the X-Men for several years, before eventually siding with the X-Men in various battles, and even joining the X-Men and X-Factor teams. Danger would be a fantastic addition to the MCU’s future X-Men storylines, though Marvel Studios should leave enough time for the Danger Room itself to be utilized in full before having it gain sentience. This could make Danger one of the longest-running and significant supporting characters in the MCU’s X-Men projects, finally doing her justice.

Marvel’s X-Men

Marvel’s X-Men is the tentative title for the future debut of the legendary Marvel mutant superhero team in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Studio(s)

Marvel Studios

Distributor(s)

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Writers

Michael Lesslie