James McAvoy recently questioned why the sequels toX-Men: First Classcompletely squandered the relationship he and Michael Fassbender had developed as rival leaders to the mutant nation, with their own ideological bents.
McAvoy has been on screens in everything from chamber drams to blockbuster sequels likeSplitandGlassand theX-Menprequel series. He’s played characters that run the gamut from depraved villains to the psychic leaders of the mutants, taking on a roleoriginated by Patrick Stewart.
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During an interview withGQ, McAvoy talked about hisX-Menrole as the young Professor Charles Xavier, or Professor X, leader of the X-Men’s school, the Xavier Institute, and one of a pair (the other being his more forthright rival, Magneto) trying to secure a future for the mutants in a world where mutants aren’t wanted. McAvoy said he considers the second of theX-Menmovies he was in,X-Men: Days of Future Past, one of his best film roles overall, but mused on what happened after that. “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?”
As far as the rest of the interview went, McAvoy talked about getting in shape to play the villain in M. Night Shyamalan’sSplitand that after a medical scare, he found himself barely able to walk any distance but still able to deadlift due to the muscles he’d built up in the course and that all the working out helped him recover more quickly than would be expected. He also expressed an interest in returning to his Narnia roots by being in some way associated withNetflix’sChronicles of Narniaadaptation. Returning to his feelings on his run leading theX-Men, he said, “It was one of the most positive experiences I’ve had with a studio. I don’t really see them as just money gigs.”
It’s a question fans might have been asking as they tried to figure out how the franchise took such a massive downturn after that, with wild swings that added up to nothing. Part of the blame has to lie at the feet of the director of the installments that came afterMatthew Vaughn’sX-Men: First Class, and that’s original franchise director Bryan Singer. Whatever anyone has to say about his tenure on theKingsman franchise, Vaughn knows what it takes to tell ensemble stories and get his casts engaged with the material, all things necessary to a property with a cast as sprawling as theX-Menfranchise.
