Throughout April, we’re counting down to the release of Marvel’s Iron Man 3 with our picks for the Greatest Comic Book Movies of All Time; here’s #3….
X2, 2003.
Directed by Bryan Singer.
Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Bruce Davison, Aaron Stanford and Kelly Hu.
Having kick-started a new wave of comic book movies by bringing Marvel’s uncanny team of mutant superheroes to the screen with 2000’s X-Men, 20th Century Fox immediately gave the green light to a sequel, with Bryan Singer returning to the director’s chair for the 2003 sequel, X2: X-Men United. Reuniting the cast of the first movie – including the now A-list Hugh Jackman, who would go on to become the only ever-present in the X-Men franchise in his signature role as Wolverine – X2 took its premise from Chris Claremont’s acclaimed 1982 graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, with the X-Men going up against Bryan Cox’s William Stryker, a U.S. Army Colonel hell bent on protecting mankind by eliminating the “mutant threat”.
X2 proved to be the rarest of sequels in that it actually managed to improve on its predecessor. It also surpassed X-Men at the global box office, pulling in over $407 million worldwide, and has went on to firmly establish its reputation as one of the finest superhero movies ever produced. It was followed by X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, with Brett Ratner directing after Singer chose to leave the franchise to helm Superman Returns, while Hugh Jackman took centre stage in 2009 for the solo sequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine before Matthew Vaughn delivered the 60s set prequel X-Men: First Class in 2011. Jackman will be back as Logan again this July in The Wolverine, while cameras are currently rolling on next year’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, with Singer returning to the series to bring Fox’s timelines together for an adaptation of the classic Uncanny X-Men story arc.
X2 is the third and final X-Men film to feature in our countdown of the Greatest Comic Book Movies, with X-Men: First Class coming in at #38, followed by the original X-Men at #28.
Keep up to date with our entire countdown here.
Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen – Available now via Amazon.co.uk
Originally published April 23, 2013. Updated November 30, 2022.
