Although Michael Fassbender has done a fantastic job in his three X-Men appearances as Magneto, we all know who the OG villain is. The incomparable Sir Ian McKellen has made four films as the Master of Mangetism, bringing a level of both charm and terror to the first modern superhero franchise. And while he seemed to enjoy playing such a badass mutant, Ian McKellen does have beef with one aspect of his role as Magneto: he wanted a cooler costume.
Ian McKellen recently spoke to Variety about a variety of subjects from his acting career, to the current political climate. When the subject of his tenure as Magneto was eventually brought up, he revealed his gripe about his super villain costume: he didn't get to wear the loud and colorful outfits from the comics.
I wasn't allowed to wear that outfit. I don't look like Magneto in the comics --- always shot from the crotch level.
For some reason, the idea of Ian McKellen talking about Magneto's crotch is thoroughly delightful. Probably because he's such a gentleman.
All joking aside, Ian McKellen's above statement seems to echo the concerns of many of the X-Men franchise's critics. While the comics feature colorful costumes that reflect each mutant's personality and abilities, the silver screen adaptation has never really delivered on that end. The costumes are consistently muted and lacking any personality at all. The original X-Men trilogy and Apocalypse featured identical black leather costumes, essentially robbing each of the characters from their individuality. And while The Last Class had an homage to the yellow and blue costumes from the comics, the team was once again wearing identical outfits.
It should be interesting to see if this changes in future installments of the X-Men franchise like The Dark Phoenix. The final moments of X-Men: Apocalypse saw the new team assembled in the danger room, being trained by Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique. And in that brief scene, each of the team was actually wearing colorful and unique costumes that were specific to their character and abilities. As a reminder, check out the end of that scene below.
Now that's more like it! Hopefully these types of costumes will be carried over to X-Men: Dark Phoenix and beyond. Now all we need is for Ian McKellen to reprise his role and get to wear a colorful maroon costume of his own.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix won't hit theaters until 2018, so be sure to check back with us here at CinemaBlend for the latest. And in the meantime, hop over to our 2017 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
