X-Men: There Was Almost A Beast Spin-Off With Nicholas Hoult

It seems that, at one point, we almost had another X-Men spinoff film that would have centered around Nicholas Hoult as Beast.

During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, longtime X-Men composer and film editor, John Ottman spoke about a Beast centered spinoff for the X-Men universe. According to Ottman, his then assistant and aspiring screenwriter, Byron Burton, came to him with the idea. At first, Ottman was skeptical but then gave him the go ahead  when he said he could crank out a script in two weeks:

I said, ‘Knock yourself out, but just know there’s a 95 percent chance no one is ever going to make this.’

After reading the draft, however, Ottman fell in love with the idea and would have even pushed to direct the film himself. The script itself would have placed Nicholas Hoult’s Beast in an Inuit village where something is stalking the villagers. Eventually Beast would have discovered that longtime X-Men villain Mister Sinister was behind it all with a big finale that would have involved Beast teaming up with a newly discovered Wolverine. It would have lead to a multi-film arc where the X-Men battle the villain. Unfortunately for them, Dark Phoenix director and former X-Men overseer at Fox, Simon Kinberg refused to even look at the script.

This was apparently due to Simon Kinberg not wanting to be influenced by the script as he was working on Dark Phoenix. In addition, bringing back Wolverine so soon after Hugh Jackman’s retirement from the character may have caused confusion among audiences. But, considering how Dark Phoenix turned out, a Beast movie starring Nicholas Hoult with a new Wolverine may not have been that bad of an alternative.

What do you all make of this idea? Would you have liked to see Beast solo film starring Nicholas Hoult? What X-Men spinoff films would you have like to see? Let us know in the comments below!

Here is a plot synopsis for the latest Fox X-Men film, Dark Phoenix:

This is the story of one of the X-Men’s most beloved characters, Jean Grey, as she evolves into the iconic DARK PHOENIX. During a life-threatening rescue mission in space, Jean is hit by a cosmic force that transforms her into one of the most powerful mutants of all. Wrestling with this increasingly unstable power as well as her own personal demons, Jean spirals out of control, tearing the X-Men family apart and threatening to destroy the very fabric of our planet. The film is the most intense and emotional X-Men movie ever made. It is the culmination of 20 years of X-Men movies, as the family of mutants that we’ve come to know and love must face their most devastating enemy yet — one of their own.

Written and directed by Simon Kinberg, Dark Phoenix stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Evan Peters, and Jessica Chastain.is now playing in theaters everywhere.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter