I personally don’t think we need the main group of X-Men again, in particular, I think we need to not see Jean Grey, Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine again that quickly, and possibly even Magneto for a villain again that quickly. The main reason is that Hugh Jackman was obviously iconic as Wolverine, so it would be hard to recast him. Plus Jean Grey and Cyclops are two expected names. I think that the MCU would be better served bringing along the X-Men slowly. With that, I think that skipping or not having Charles Xavier as a main character is important as well for keeping it that lesser known feel.

Now, that might be a big of a harder sell, because the X-Men movies have generally be fairly successful and it would be easy to lean into the main characters again. It would likely mean that you are getting a decent amount of money from them, but Kevin Feige has led the charge of taking lesser known characters and making them well known in the public eye. I had been reading comics for a while, but I didn’t really know how the Guardians of the Galaxy were. I knew Ant-Man and Dr. Strange from the Avengers comics, but not as a stand alone, and all of those work well in the MCU. So I trust that lesser known characters would work well, though, I’m thinking, keep the Disco Dazzler sidelined for a while, that might be smart.

So then who do you put together as a team? You would still have Charles Xavier in the background, but you wouldn’t really bring him in, kind of like Thanos, until you needed it for the big event as a good guy. That way you keep it separated from the characters that have been previously used in the X-Men world. But Xavier is an important enough character that you probably need to tease him, at least, early on.

But let’s meet the main roster:

Gambit – I just want Gambit done well, but he was barely in the previous movies, so he would be someone new, and I could see him “leading” a team of X-Men, though probably fairly poorly, which would be an interesting part of a story.

Nightcrawler – So I break my own rule here. He’s had a pretty large part in the previous films, but he’s a character a lot of fans like. I’m also going for misunderstood characters, and I think you play with that with Nightcrawler.

Rogue – You can see the thread, misunderstood characters. Ones who don’t stand out as the heroes as much as the others, because when you get down to it, Rogue’s powers to leach the powers and life from people are terrifying, especially if she’s not careful. She and Gambit have also been a fun flirting couple in the comics.

Bishop – Bishop is an interesting character with his powers to absorb energy, so kind of the opposite of Gambit. But he’s also interesting if they wanted to play around with timelines more since he’s supposed to be from the future and putting him out of place would work pretty well. But if you don’t want to do that part, you can ignore it as well for him. And he’s someone that people aren’t familiar with.

Syrin – She could also be the new Banshee, but I think keeping that character away is fine now. She’d round out the team with sonic powers. I like her because she has a pretty tragic backstory, but more so for her criminal background. So that’s something that would make a lot of sense to have her pair up with Gambit who has some troubles in his backstory and with Nightcrawler who can bamf around.

That’s the team that I’d start with for the X-Men. We’ll come back at a later time and do some casting for those characters. If you were to create an X-Men team without using the likes of Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm and Wolverine, who would you go with? And do you like an idea of a more misunderstood team versus the boy scout team you can end up with when Cyclops is around?

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Synopsis: The Dresden Files are a series that follow around Harry Dresden as he deals with many crazy supernatural things in Chicago. There is a big overarching story that I won’t go too much into because that would be spoilers. But he works with the police to solve these crimes and mysteries. It also helps to know that Harry is a Wizard.

Let’s meet the main characters:

Harry Dresden – The aforementioned wizard, Harry is a tall man who diffuses his own stress with his own special brand of humor, which normally just gets him into more trouble. He’s not a built person, but is lanky and has good functional strength.

Karrin Murphy – Small spitfire of a police officer. She’s had to be patient as she has worked her way up in the Chicago PD, but she has made her way up. She’s athletic and doesn’t put up his Harry’s crap or anyone’s crap, but is still a very caring person.

Susan Rodriguez – A reporter who is pretty and also investigates the paranormal or supernatural. She’s onto the fact that Harry might actually be what he says and hounds him for information.

Bob – A talking skull that is a wealth of knowledge that is in Harry’s possession. Also a quite pervy spirit who inhabits the skull.

Michael Carpenter – A large strong man with a large family. He is a man of faith who is very even keeled but not afraid to step into a situation, help Harry out and make a difference when evil is threatening Chicago or anywhere in the world.

Waldo Butters – A small coroner who knows some about the supernatural. He also really loves polka and can’t stand injury, though has no problem working on a corpse.

“Gentleman” Johnny Marconne – A mobster who runs basically all the organized crime in Chicago. He helps out Harry at times and gets in Harry’s way at other times, depending on what is most useful for him.

Ebenezar McCoy – Harry’s mentor, teacher, and friend. Took Harry in when his first teacher went evil. He’s an old wizard with a ton of power and very respected. Also part of the White Council which oversees the wizarding community.

There are really a plethora more characters who could make sense to talk about and cast, but this is limited spoilers as well and does focus on a lot of reoccurring characters throughout the series.

So who would I want to play them?

Harry Dresden – Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis, who plays Lucifer in Lucifer, is sufficiently tall. He also has that long frame, that comes with height, but isn’t too built. He’s very polished looking as Lucifer, but if his hair was a bit longer and messier and, like Harry, had a beat up look about him most of the time, I think that he’d make a good Harry Dresden.

Karen Murphy – Maggie Lawson
I really only know Maggie Lawson from watching Psych. But in that show she’s very much a character who has to put up with Shawn’s crap as a fake psychic detective. The only thing I wonder about is if she can be as grouchy as Murphy is sometimes. But Lawson can definitely play a character who is caring.

Susan Rodriguez – Melissa Fumero
We’ve seen her in a comedy in Brooklyn 99, and while Susan isn’t the most comedic role, I think that Fumero would have the acting chops to pull it off. What I think works really well with her is that she’s an intense character in Brooklyn 99 who is always needing to do the best, I think that Susan possesses a lot of those similar qualities.

Bob – Paul Bettany
He’s the first person I thought off. He does a good job as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel movies, but I think it’s more his Knight’s Tale Chaucer that he could channel into Bob, this spirit who has been around for so long but also has this surprisingly pervy human side.

Michael Carpenter – Adam Copeland
You’re more apt to know him as Edge from WWE. So clearly you have someone who is going to have a larger build. Edge, though, just has a very friendly looking face and with a few beard hairs turning grey, he would make a really believable family man who is also strong and tough.

Waldo Butters – Elijah Woods
Frodo as an eccentric coroner? That doesn’t make a ton of sense, but the actor who was in Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency, that makes perfect sense. Woods has shown that he’s up for those odd roles and has done a very good job with them. I think he’d make a lot of sense continue in those odd roles as the worried and polka loving Waldo Butters.

“Gentleman” Johnny Marconne – Ben Mendelsohn
You might know him as Sorrento in Ready Player One or Orson Krennic in Star Wars: Rogue One. He’s done a good job of playing those skeezy bad guys before who are slick. Marconne definitely has that feel and while I would think of Marconne being a bit younger personally, I think that Mendelsohn’s acting shows that he could deal with the role very well.

Ebenezar McCoy – Brendan Gleeson
Older, bigger, and still tough as nails. Gleeson fits that quite well I’d think. I’m not extremely familiar with Gleeson’s work, but if you’re not making McCoy quite as crazy white haired as he has been in my brain, just older and tough as nails, Gleeson fits that to a tee.

There are so many more characters to cast, and I really want to go through and figure out all of them, but that would be semi-spoiler heavy to describe who the characters are. So instead, I’ll hold off on those and maybe do another post to talk about them, just be warned there would be spoilers.

So what do you think of my casting, who would you cast in their place if you disagree?

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