When Michael Jackson wanted to star in X-Men

Bryan Singer’s past in Hollywood has been slipping under the radar lately, after several noteworthy statements from various actors. This was particularly the case around the film X-Men Apocalypse, whose filming circumstances would have been improbable. But, for the 20 years of the X-Men movie franchise, the Hollywood Reporter chose to go back further, to the very first film in the mutants saga by Fox.

X-Men on the star radar

When the first film hit theaters in 2000, superheroes were a long way from having the aura they currently have. If we have already had the right to several films in this register, we are far from the situation today. But, it is a rather attractive cast that we find in the image with Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry or even Patrick Stewart.

But, another name for the less particular could also have appeared on the poster of the film: Michael Jackson. While Bryan Singer was working on the film in 1999, the singer indeed arrived in the offices of Fox. He comes to chat directly to discuss the possibility of seeing him play Professor X on screen. And that doesn’t matter the physical difference, as producer Lauren Shuler Donner recounts.

I said to him, ‘Do you know that Xavier is an elderly white character?’ And Michael said, “Oh yeah. You know, I can do my makeup.

As appealing as the idea may seem in hindsight, it would never have really been considered on Fox’s side. At the time, the X-Men are already thought of as a franchise of the future and Michael Jackson looks more like a relic of the past, loaded with pots and accusations of all kinds.

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