Though the movies varied in quality, the X-Men franchise proved to be incredibly lucrative for 20th Century Fox, with Bryan Singer's original film spawning a number of sequels and spin-offs.
The film series went on to become one of the studio's biggest box office successes, but it's now come to light that the franchise could have been scrapped before it even got started if Rupert Murdoch had his way.
While speaking to Business Insider about the upcoming 4K re-release of David Fincher’s Fight Club, former CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, Bill Mechanic, revealed that Murdoch - whose News Corps. owned the studio at the time - and his fellow higher-ups were convinced that X-Men would be a "trainwreck."
“They saw it and thought it was a disaster — why would anybody make a Marvel comic into a movie?”
Even though Blade does also deserve credit, 2000's X-Men is widely regarded as the film that reinvigorated audience interest in the superhero genre after Batman and Robin was thought to have driven the final nail into the coffin. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man followed, and Marvel Studios' Iron Man launched the most successful movie franchise of all time in 2008.
Mechanic also revealed that Murdoch hated Fight Club, which, to be fair, was a notorious box office bomb upon its release.
Here's an excerpt from Variety's report.
"If Murdoch didn’t want to be challenged, then there was no way he was going to like Fincher’s Fight Club. Based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel and starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, Fincher’s brooding and violent vision allegedly outraged Murdoch. Mechanic remembered attending one News Corps. meeting where '[Rupert] started attacking, and he said, ‘What kind of sick [frick]ing human being would make a movie like this?’ I said, ‘Me. David Fincher. We’re not embarrassed.'”
“I knew he hadn’t seen the movie yet,” Mechanic added. “That’s probably the nexus of when he wanted to get rid of me.”
A lot of the original X-Men cast members are set to reprise their roles for Avengers: Doomsday, and we will meet a brand-new team in Marvel Studios' long-awaited reboot after Secret Wars.
They are children of the atom, homo superior, the next link in the chain of evolution. Each was born with a unique genetic mutation, which at puberty manifested itself in extraordinary powers. In a world filled with hate and prejudice, they are feared by those who cannot accept their differences. Led by Xavier the X-Men fight to protect a world that fears them. They are locked in a battle with former colleague and friend, Magneto who believes humans and mutants should never co-exist.