Trailer Tuesdays: X-Men: Days of Future Past

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! X-Men!

I am insanely excited for this movie. Seriously, even though I have been very hard on almost all the X-Men movies and I will probably be very hard on this one, that doesn’t mean I’m not excited.

Some things about this trailer I am super excited about are the inclusion of Bishop, Blink, Sunspot, and Warpath, all of whom are amazing, awesome X-Men characters of color. Well, Blink is actually an alien in the comics, with pink skin and the ability to teleport; however, from the trailer, we know that Blink is played by Bingbing Fan, a Chinese actress who is pretty damn famous in China. It seems to me that the movie may rewrite Blink as mutant, in which case we would have another woman of color as a mutant in the X-Men movies. Hopefully my guess will be right, especially since the X-Men movies haven’t had any mention or hints of aliens existing in that universe.

We have two other new characters of color in this trailer, too. Warpath is an Apache Native American who possesses superhuman strength and speed, and Sunspot is an Afro-Brazilian mutant who can absorb solar energy. I’m super excited to see such diversity in the X-Men movies, especially since the past couple of movies really only featured Storm and several side characters of color who will probably never appear again. And, although I am pretty sure that Sunspot, Warpath, and Blink will never show up after this movie either, there is one character of color who has a shot at becoming a recurring character.

Bishop is an African-American who has the ability to absorb all forms of radiant or conductive energy that are directed towards him and to release that energy from his body. In an episode of the X-Men animated series, similarly titled “Days of Future Past”, Bishop is a time traveler who goes back in time to stop a traitor in the X-Men from causing an international incident that causes the horrible future that Bishop comes from, where mutants are beings rounded up and murdered. Bishop has historically been a very important and crucial character in the X-Men franchise and it would be excellent for him to become a regular character. Maybe he’ll even get his own movie. He should, anyway.

But see, that’s where I start to get nervous. From this trailer, it appears it will not be Bishop traveling to the past, but Wolverine. Wolverine is the one who must solve the problems and save the day, not Bishop. In fact, from what the trailer seems to imply, I’m not sure how Bishop and many of these other X-Men are going to be worked into the plot. A brief glance at IMDb shows Bishop and almost all our other characters of color far down the list, immediately putting them into minor (if not very minor) character status. In the animated series, Bishop is the focus and center of ‘Days of Future Past’, not Wolverine. Marvel, Wolverine is interesting and a fan favorite and all, but you are over-playing your hand with him. I’m literally bored by Wolverine now. Replacing Bishop with Wolverine is not acceptable; this should be his story.

I’m trying to stay optimistic because Bishop is finally in a movie along with several other characters of color, but I’m worried that the X-Men franchise—which is supposed to promote diversity—will throw their characters of color under the bus for yet another story about a white male protagonist.