One of my hopes for the X-Men in the MCU is that a lot of the story will be told in TV series, as I think it’s the best format for a group like the X-Men. I’d love to see them introduced in a movie with the original group as a way to introduce us to them, likely seeing them fight Magneto and the Brotherhood before ending with them being revealed to the world and/or the Avengers. But then, I think it would make sense to spin things off into a set of shows just because there are so many mutants and so many incredible stories to tell.
Imagine an X-Men Blue and an X-Men Gold series running either back to back over the course of two years. With both building up to a massive confrontation with a universe-threatening enemy like Apocalypse or maybe Master Mold in a film and the repercussions played out in the series that follows. They could have Sinister, Juggernaut, Hellfire Club, or other big enemies throughout the series while only teasing the larger villains.
One of the problems that the MCU and the former Fox X-Men universe shared was that they both had serious issues with scale. Ultron’s reign lasted all of a week in the movies and didn’t feel nearly as impactful as the film tried to make it seem. The same issue occurred with Apocalypse in the eponymous film. But if both of those events had happened as their own 12 episode season of a show with the film as the endcap? Could’ve made for something great with all of the build up and character development prior to the film.
Plus, tv shows give a lot more room for the development of many characters. It’s tough to show the growth and development of 20+ major characters in 2 hour movies. Shows also give the ability to experiment. There could be an anthology series that takes on a specific character or group each season. Or maybe even just 6 episode mini-series focused on an event like Days of Futures Past or Old Man Logan. There’s just so much more versatility in doing a combo of films and shows.
