Famke Janssen as Jean Grey
ComicBookMovie recently posted a rumor that Famke Janssen is going to reprise her role as Jean Grey in a cameo appearance in The Wolverine. This could possibly tie The Wolverine in with Days of Future Past and how they are going to change things up.While I can see where this might be coming from, and how it could might work, depending on when and how her cameo takes place (flash forward maybe?), it’s one of those things that could make or wreck the film in regards to the overall X-Men Cinemagraphic Universe.
Jean Grey is dead via the end of X3 (not that death has ever stopped her) and she turned into Phoenix at the end of X2… so if this is a flash forward then it would have to take place sometime before X2. If it’s about time travel, or Kitty DOFP style mental Time Travel, in X2 Kitty was called “a little girl who could walk through walls” meaning she had to be even younger in X1. (I still don’t know how Kitty will work in DOFP since she won’t even been born yet unless they skip WAY into the future). But then flashing forward to X1-ish means we’re that much closer to a full reboot of the X movies.
If Jean Grey is time traveling, that, again, opens a big can of worms of rebooting which could hopefully only be a good thing.
If The Wolverine actually takes place post X-3, well then, that’s a boat load of confusion as most of thought that this would be a prequel to the X-movies (like Origins but takes place after Origins ala the Easter Egg at the end of that movie). So not only is the movie moved, but Jean Grey is apparently back from the dead (again, not a big stretch). Though now we have total fail on the reboot option.
The biggest problem with all this is that Famke is older now, it’s just fact. X-Men came out in 2000, over a decade ago, and she looks older and more mature from her X1 self. This can be worked around, with makeup and stuff, but they need to be very clear on when and how all of this is happening, esp since the rumor is that only Jean Grey might be in the Wolverine (unless the whole Patrick Stewart thing being in DOFP is actually a cameo in Wolverine, but that only helps a little). Of course, if it’s option three and post X3 then this isn’t an issue.
Really, what Fox needs to do is sit back and say “we made some X-Men movies and while some were good, some weren’t, now we’re going to start all over again with First Class, literally”. It’s not like people are going to look on them any less, just look at Batman, he’s had several films totally unrelated to each other and it’s been pure win. Fox doesn’t have to attempt to save face or anything like that here, it’s been a decade since X1, you have new actors who literally owned their roles in First Class… go from here and leave the first X movies as Alt Uni’s… the comics have tons of them!
So, personally, I hope this is just a rumor… but if it isn’t, then maybe this is part of the Easter Egg and totally brilliant! We’ll have to see in July…
X-Men: The (fan fic) Series 