Marvel Studios producer Victoria Alonso recently stated that the X-Men team name is outdated because the team includes “a lot of female superheroes.”
Alonso spoke with Nuke the Fridge’s Luis Lecca about the X-Men, where she detailed how she believes the team name is outdated.
Alonso touched on a number of subjects including Captain Marvel and what fans can expect from the upcoming special features on the Blu-ray.
When Lecca asks Alonso about the X-Men and if she can give him a hint about what Marvel has in store, Alonso responds by declaring that the term X-Men is outdated.
“I don’t know where the future is going. It’s funny that people call it the X-Men, there’s a lot of female superheroes in that X-Men group, so I think it’s outdated.”
Alonso continued:
“I don’t know where it’s going to go. We’ll see. They just now have joined. They have a movie [Dark Phoenix] coming out soon, which under that banner is their last film. So, we’ll see what time will tell.”
This is very interesting to hear from a producer from a Marvel Studios producer. Name and brand recognition are huge factors when it comes to a franchise. It’s one of the reasons why Hollywood is constantly rebooting and creating sequels for so many beloved franchises like Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, and more.
In fact, one could argue it’s the reason why Disney purchased Marvel and Star Wars. They wanted the brand recognition and the built-in audience that came with those brands and franchises.
The idea that the name X-Men might be outdated is also patently ridiculous. The word man was traditionally used to refer to the human species or mankind as a whole.
The English language doesn’t retain grammatical gender in nouns, adjectives, and pronouns as we see in languages such as Spanish or French. Thus the term X-Men includes not only males, but females as well.
As a fan of the X-Men, I’d hate to see their name changed due to new sensitivities that seem to be popular in our culture. And as many X-Men fans know the team has been led by a number of female characters including Storm, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Rogue, Jean Grey, Magik, Karma, Psylocke, and others.
What do you think of what Victoria Alonso has to say about the name of the X-Men? Do you agree? Or do you think she is completely off her rocker?