I’ve read all four available alternative scripts to the first X-Men movie available online. Pretty interesting to see how the project evolved. Here’s a quick rundown on all of them.Gary Goldman’s “Wolverine and the X-Men” (1991)>The X-Men are Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler and Mastermind, and the script begins with them recruiting Kitty Pryde.>Xavier and Wolverine are in their 40s, the rest of the team are in their 20s, and Kitty is a teenager. Bob Hoskins was eyed to play Wolverine.>There is no Wolverine/Jean/Cyclops love triangle. Cyclops and Jean have a will-they-won’t-they relationship, and Mastermind is simping for Jean. >Nightcrawler is the comic relief and doesn’t teleport.>Humans don’t know mutants exist yet. There are no other students besides the X-Men. Wolverine is Xavier’s old friend, right-hand man and the school’s sole teacher and protector.>The X-Men don’t wear costumes, only workout clothes with their codenames on them during a training sequence while Xavier is introducing Kitty to them.>The main villain is Thomas Prince, a politician who grooms Mastermind into revealing the location of the X-Mansion after the X-Men kick him out for attempting to rape Jean.>Prince captures the X-Men, forces Mastermind to cast illusions of them committing atrocities and stages a public execution to get elected president.
>>223189209>Wolverine and Kitty hide with Angel, a former member of the X-Men who had his wings surgically removed and now leads a peaceful life with his wife and kids.>Wolverine and Kitty rescue the X-Men, and Wolverine kills Prince’s mutant enforcer Atalanta by stabbing her and a power line and using his metal skeleton as a conductor to electrocute her.>Prince turns out to be a mutant with magnetic powers who wants to turn humans against mutants to force mutants to band together and destroy humans.>Mastermind sacrifices himself to expose Prince, the X-Men defeat him and the public embraces them as heroes. Xavier reveals their existence to the world, Cyclops and Jean get together, and Kitty officially joins the team.Carolco Pictures was developing this version of the project and asked James Cameron to direct, but he opted to develop a Spider-Man movie for them and passed X-Men to his then-wife Kathryn Bigelow.
Andrew Kevin Walker’s “X-Men” (1994)>The X-Men are Xavier, Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Angel and Iceman. They wear black and yellow uniforms.>The Brotherhood of Mutants is Magneto, Sabretooth, Toad, Blob and Juggernaut. They wear armor padding over their regular clothes.>The Mutant Registration Act is in effect, and the government has been experimenting on mutants to use their DNA to create supersoldiers.>Xavier recruits Wolverine, who only accepts because he wants revenge against Sabretooth for killing his wife. In this version, he is a secret agent for Canada’s Department H and best friends with its director James Hudson.>Cyclops and Wolverine butt heads over Wolverine’s violent methods and his attraction to Jean. Cyclops thinks Wolverine will always choose revenge over the team. >Jean finds out Wolverine’s memories are fake and Hudson actually abducted him and put him through the Weapon X program.>The X-Men fight the Brotherhood after they assassinate Senator Robert Kelly. Sabretooth rips Angel’s wings out and Beast is captured by the CIA, but later manages to escape.>The CIA attacks the X-Mansion with a Sentinel, but the X-Men destroy it. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood takes over the island of Manhattan in order to turn it into a promised land for mutants and exiles the humans.>In the final battle, the X-Men defeat the Brotherhood. Magneto begins conjuring a storm of debris to crush them. Wolverine beats Sabretooth but chooses to let him go to save the others, and distracts Magneto to allow Cyclops to take him out.>Magneto and the Brotherhood are locked up, Wolverine and Cyclops win each other’s respect, and Wolverine leaves to track down Sabretooth and confront Hudson, promising to return one day to rejoin the team.This was the draft Bigelow was supposed to direct, but it was considered too expensive and went through multiple rewrites.
>>223189292This one is based, shame it wasn't made.
Laeta Kalogridis’s “Wolverine and the X-Men” (1995)>The X-Men are Xavier, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Beast and Gambit. The script begins with them rescuing Wolverine from Weapon X and Jubilee from the Friends of Humanity, a hate group led by Senator Karl Grant.>Grant runs Weapon X, attempted to brainwash Wolverine into becoming a mutant-hunting assassin, and is developing the Legacy Virus to enslave mutants.>The chief scientist of Weapon X is Magneto, who is secretly developing the Legacy Virus to wipe out humans, and also leads the Brotherhood, formed by Sabretooth, Mystique, Blob, Pyro and Scarlet Witch.>Wolverine hates humans for killing his wife, but later discovers these are fake memories implanted by Magneto to groom him to join the Brotherhood.>No Wolverine/Jean/Cyclops love triangle. Wolverine hooks up with Storm instead.>Xavier and Magneto have no connection in this version, Magneto’s conflict is with Wolverine.>Magneto and the Brotherhood attack Grant’s presidential rally in Central Park to unleash the Legacy Virus, but the X-Men stop them and Beast neutralizes the virus. The people see the X-Men fighting against mutants to protect humans, even Grant, and realizes they are not evil.>After the X-Men defeat the Brotherhood, Magneto and Sabretooth escape back to Weapon X. Wolverine pursues them alone, kills Sabretooth, confronts Magneto and refuses to join him.>Magneto begins ripping the Adamantium out of Wolverine. Wolverine then throws one of his own claws into Magneto’s chest, killing him.>Wolverine and Jubilee officially join the X-Men as the public becomes more accepting towards mutants.This was the first revision to Walker’s draft. Carolco went bankrupt later that same year due to the failure of Cutthroat Island and the legal battle over the Spider-Man rights, and the X-Men rights got picked up by 20th Century Fox.
Michael Chabon’s “The X-Men” (1996)>The X-Men are Xavier, Cyclops, Jean, Storm, Beast, Iceman and Nightcrawler. The script begins with them saving Wolverine and Jubilee from Weapon X.>The X-Men are one of several mutant factions who answer to the Council of Elders, a secret society formed by the oldest living mutants. Everybody wears Matrix-esque black leather clothes and hangs out in an underground mutant rave.>Humans don’t know mutants exist. The Council wants to keep it a secret, Xavier wants to go public so humans and mutants can coexist peacefully, the rival Mutant Liberation Front wants to go public and enslave humans.>The X-Men find out Weapon X turned Wolverine into the carrier for the mutant-killing Legacy Virus, and the Council orders his execution. Mutants are very cultish and supremacist in this version.>Cyclops, Storm and Iceman are in favor of killing Wolverine. Jean, Beast and Nightcrawler are against it and help Wolverine and Jubilee escape, only for Weapon X to recapture them.>Weapon X is run by the Illuminati, who hired Jubilee’s parents to create the Legacy Virus, bond Adamantium to Wolverine’s skeleton and brainwash him to be their mutant-hunting assassin.>The leader of the Illuminati is Mr. Montcleaf, who is implied to be a mutant with the power to create plans for everything.>When they found out Jubilee is a mutant, her parents encoded the cure to the virus in her DNA and programmed Wolverine to be her protector. >The X-Men locate and rescue Wolverine and Jubilee, and defeat the Illuminati. Xavier defies the Council and reveals to the public that mutants exist. The Council announces that the X-Men are now enemies of mutantkind and orders the Mutant Liberation Front to destroy them, setting up a sequel.This was one of the first pitches for the Fox version of the project, but didn’t get much traction as Fox wanted something closer to the 90s animated show, though The Matrix remained a big influence on the project.
