❘ Published: 2024-01-18T16:57:58 ❘ Updated: 2024-01-18T16:58:09
Magneto’s helmet got an unusual upgrade for 2000’s X-Men, and the film’s writer has confirmed it was because of a question nobody could answer.
To say that a lot was changed in the X-Men movies would be an understatement. 2000’s X-Men seems almost afraid of its brightly colored comic book origins, skewing towards something edgier, grittier, and decidedly more in line with the aesthetics of the time.
There are no neon yellow costumes or blue one-piece suits in the film. Everyone gets a black leather number with colored piping, making a more unified team look but also dating the film pretty significantly.
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Magneto also got a hell of a redesign, with a more streamlined, almost casual take on his comic costume. But the biggest change came with his helmet, which got an unusual power upgrade for the film.
The X-Men movies feature a Magneto helmet which blocks telepathy, preventing Professor X from reading his mind. This factoid resurfaced in an X post by RedLReviews, who said he still laid awake at night thinking about how that wasn’t at thing in the comics until the movies.
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He’s right, which is something many modern fans won’t know. Fortunately, X-Men screenwriter David Hayter (who we are obligated to tell you is also the voice actor for Metal Gear Solid‘s Solid Snake) had an explanation for the change.
“This happened because the director said one day, ‘Why couldn’t Xavier just make Magneto go to sleep or something?’” Hayter shared on his X account. “No one had an answer. So we decided it was the helmet.”
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