TheX-Menare making a pop culture comeback this year: next week sees the launch of a newX-Men #1from Marvel Comics courtesy ofJed MackayandRyan Stegman, whileX-Men ‘97debuted to acclaim from all corners andDeadpool & Wolverineis slated to be a blockbuster blowout. But it wasn’t always this way. Previous attempts to get anX-Menfilmand/or television series off the ground have failed, with the most infamous beingGeneration X. Based on the X-Men spinoff team created byScott LobdellandChris Bachalo,Generation Xis technically the first live-action X-Men project. But why have so few people heard of it? How did it fail to launch a franchise? The answers lie below.
Generation X
Generation X follows a group of teenage mutants who enroll in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. They are trained by Emma Frost and Banshee to control their powers.The plot revolves around students determined to thwart Dr. Russel Tresh, an unethical scientist who plans to control the world’s dreams using a machine that taps into the dream dimension.
What Is ‘Generation X’ About?
Generation Xbegins when Jubilation Lee (Heather McComb) — or “Jubilee” — discovers her mutant ability to generate bursts of energy that resemble fireworks. She eventually finds herself at the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters, which is run by Emma Frost (Finola Hughes) and Sean Cassidy (Jeremy Ratchford), better known as the White Queen and Banshee respectively.Jubilee ends up joining a new class of mutantsthat includes the elastic powered Skin (Agustin Rodriguez), and together they learn to control their powers. But a threat manifests in the form of Frost’s old colleague Russel Tresh (Matt Frewer), as he’s grown obsessed with discovering the dimension where dreams are born…and wants to harness mutants as test subjects.
The production boasted two genre veterans: writerEric Blakeney, who worked on21 Jump Street, andJack Sholder,who ironically tackledanotherdream-themed narrative when he directedA Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Though Sholder was a lapsed comic book fan, he actually looked forward to directingGeneration X. “It was sort of junior X-Men, and it was a good script. It seemed like it would be a lot of fun and it would be challenging. It had a wacky sense of humor that got wackier once we cast it,“Sholder toldSyfy Wire— which may be underselling the final project by a mile.
‘Generation X’s Tight Budget Led To Major Character Changes
Generation Xran into a major problem from the start — it only had a $4 million budget, which is certainly far less than your typicalsuperhero blockbusteror television show. This led totwo major characters from the comics team being replaced with budget-friendly alternatives.Those members were Paige Guthrie/Husk, who can shed her skin to transform into different elements, and Chamber, whose body contains a psychic fire that blew half of his face off. In their place was Refrax (Randall Slavin), a mutant who had the ability of X-ray and heat vision, and Buff (Suzanne Davis), who, true to her namesake, was superhumanly strong. Blakeney expressed his disappointment with the budget in an interview with theLos Angeles Times:
“It was very frustrating for all of us…One mutant we really wanted to include was Chamber. Chamber’s visual features [which include a constant energy pulse emanating from his chest to lower face] were just too expensive to realize.”
New characters weren’t the only big change inGeneration X.Jubilee’s ethnicity changed,as she is depicted as Chinese American in the comics but was portrayed by a white actress in the film. It was a strange change, made even stranger by the fact thatX-Men: The Animated Serieswas airing around that time andfeatured Jubilee as a major character. Sholder chalked the discrepancy up to the script, saying, “The script does not mention her Asian ethnicity, nor is it mentioned in the casting breakdown that went out to agents.” He did mention thatSandra Ohauditioned for the role of Emma Frost; Oh would later enter the world of comic book adaptationswhen she scored a role inInvincible.
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‘Generation X’ Was Meant To Launch a TV Series
Fox, seeing the potential of the X-Men franchise due toX-Men: The Animated Series’runaway success,initially wantedGeneration Xto serve as the launchpad for a potential series of movies or a television series.Even the late, greatStan Leewas rooting forGeneration X’ssuccess, proclaiming: “If this thing doesn’t create demand, I’ll eat my hat!” Sholder had a different outlook:
They never told me that [Generation X was a pilot for a series]. Whenever you made a TV movie, that was always a possibility. But it certainly wasn’t made as a pilot. There are things that are called backdoor pilots, which means it’s not really a pilot but, depending on how it turns out, it could be a pilot. Probably, if it was done today it would be a pilot. It’s a perfect situation for a pilot. You’ve got a group of continuing characters and this whole fantasy thing. At that point, the whole Syfy Channel hadn’t really happened and those shows [didn’t] start making money. So this was just seen as a one-off thing.
In the end,Generation Xdidn’t wind up making the impact its creative crew or its network hoped it would,even with some positive praise. But the question remains:doesGeneration Xdeserve a second look?
‘Generation X’ Pales in Comparison to Other ‘X-Men’ Projects
WatchingGeneration Xin 2024,it’s clear that the film falls short of what you’d expect from an X-Men project. Despite Frewer chewing every amount of scenery he can get his hands on, Tresh pales in comparison to other X-Men foes like Sinister or Apocalypse. The team dynamics also need work, as Jubilee and Skin get the lion’s share of the focus while the rest of Generation X is just in the background. And the less said about the effects, the better. But there are some positives: the few scenes where Generation X bonds feel very close to the comics, and Hughes actually manages to capture a side of Emma Frost that would later be displayed in future comics where the White Queen fully embraced her heroic side.
Generation Xalsounexpectedly started a trend that would affect theX-Men film franchise, and other superhero projects. Filming for scenes at the Xavier Institute took place atHatley Castlein British Columbia;the castle would continue to serve as a filming location for otherX-Menfilmsand theDeadpoolseries, as well as Lex Luthor’s mansion inSmallvilleand Oliver Queen’s home inArrow. Even ifGeneration Xmight be nothing but a distant memory, it at least paved the way for the X-Men to truly thrive in film and television.
Generation Xis available to stream on the Internet Archive in the U.S.
