X-Men

25 Years

Pinpointing the exact moment that comic book movies took hold of popular culture is an impossible task, but X-Men is absolutely part of that history. Besides establishing Hugh Jackman as a movie star, all X-Men movies in the 25 years since have been living in the shadow of casting Ian McKellen as Magneto and Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier too. These three actors have become the defacto live-action castings for these characters, and it’s going to be a while before anyone can replace them.

To the credit of Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, they did a great job playing younger versions of Magneto and Professor X, but who knows who’s ever going to take the impossible job of playing another version of Wolverine.