Trivia: Michael Jackson Wanted To Play Professor X In ‘X-Men’, And He Wasn’t The Only Pop Star To Audition
By Ethan Anderton/March 3, 2017 4:30 pm EST
Beyond that though, you might be surprise to hear that there were some mind-blowing contenders who came in to read for various roles in the first X-Men movie. Believe it or not, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, came in to audition for Professor X. And he wasn’t the only chart-topping singer looking to play one of the Marvel mutants.
Learn about how Michael Jackson auditioned for X-Men and other surprising contenders after the jump.
The Hollywood Reporter recently talked to former X-Men franchise writer David Hayter, who was there at the beginning of 20th Century Fox’s development of the first film. While talking about the creative process for the first movie, Hayter revealed some surprising names who were brought in to audition for roles, and a couple stars who they wanted for roles, but ended up unaffordable at the time.
On the pop star front, Hayter revealed that Michael Jackson came in to audition because he wanted to play Professor X. Meanwhile, his sister Janet Jackson was brought in to audition for Storm. And she wasn’t the only singer trying to land the role, because Mariah Carey was looking to spark her acting career as the weather-controlling mutant as well. In addition, Glenn Danzig, the founder of rock bands such as Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig, came in to audition for Wolverine.
Thankfully, chart-topping singers weren’t the only talents being sought to play mutants. There were professional athletes too! Shaquille O’Neal, who had already played the superhero known as Steel, once read for a role. One would think he might make for an interesting alternate choice to play Colossus, for obvious reasons. Instead, he was interested in playing Bishop, a charater who wouldn’t appear in an X-Men movie until X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014 when he was played by Omar Sy.
In the end, I think all of the casting for X-Men worked out for the best, with the exception of Tyler Mane as Sabretooth and Ray Park as Toad, neither of whom brought anything except a physical presence to the table. At the very least, I’m glad most of the aforementioned names didn’t end up with the roles they auditioned for. That might have doomed the X-Men franchise from the beginning, and who knows which movie would have been the one to launch the comic book movie craze after that.
