April 6, 2014

Juggernaut Was Set For DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, Will He Appear In X-MEN APOCALYPSE Instead?


One of the more interesting elements of Bryan Singer's inclusion of a Vietnam sub-plot in X-Men: Days of Future Past, is the exclusion of Cain Marko (Juggernaut). The X-Men villain along with his younger step-brother Charles Xavier (Cain would bully Charles while growing-up) fought in the Korean War (originally in the comics), which could have been substituted with Vietnam. An easy way in for Marko, and sort of an interesting way to include his origins teasing mutants could be created as well. Sinister and Juggernaut are mutants of sorts, but were originally humans turned-into mutant villains. Even Spider-Man is considered a mutant, even though he wasn't born with his mutated DNA.


Finding an accident jewel during the war, it bestows upon him the Juggernaut powers, as Marko isn't actually a mutant. The jewel could be technology linked to a group of the first mutants, like Apocalypse as he's able to give humans mutant abilities. Sinister being a prime example of that, turning the human doctor into one of the most powerful mutant villains. I understood why Fox made Raven his adopted sister, rather than including Marko as Charles' step-brother. However, it would have been easy to include him as one of the military characters, instead of a less popular character like Toad.


We now have confirmation that indeed Cain was intended to be in the film, but was later replaced with Quicksilver (alluded to by producer/screenwriter Simon Kinberg). Aussie actor Josh Helman (The Pacific) reveals he was originally hired to play Marko in the film (bulking-up for the role), but would later be asked to play a young William Stryker instead. The Juggernaut part was eventually cut, due to overcrowding and was expected to play a part similar to Quicksilver.

“I originally got hired on a different role, which is no longer in the script -- it was going to be young Juggernaut,” Helman explained when IGN visited the set of the film. “So I was like, ‘Oh, s#!t. I’ve got to put on like 30 pounds!’ So I was training for like four weeks, and then I got a phone call saying, ‘Good news and bad news. Bad news first: Juggernaut’s no longer in the script. Good news: They’re having trouble with another role and they want to see you for it.’”

We've already heard from Bryan Singer he wants to add characters like Gambit and Nightcrawler in the sequel. Since he wanted include Nightcrawler, but the film was already overcrowded and we know that Singer has been dying to use Gambit since X2. I expect Juggernaut is another one of those characters as Bryan had the intention to use him in Days of Future Past and even back during the early development of X3 (before he exited the film). I wouldn't doubt if he was included, he'd start-out standing alongside Apocalypse.

Marko entering the cave and finding more than the jewel in the cave, could make for interesting end-credits scene for Days of Future Past. I'm just not sure Singer would have the foresight for something like that though. As he's been making massive deviations to the comic lore already, sticking to his guns is admirable and a bit absurd at times. Making drastic changes to Trask from X3, making Stryker incredibly younger than he was during the same time period in X-Men Origins. Singer could push even further and recreate the origins for a bunch of previously used characters, like Nightcrawler, Gambit and even Juggernaut.


SOURCE: IGN

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