After appearing in ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘, another version of Quicksilver is set to star alongside Hulk and Iron Man in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron‘. But can we handle it?
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinberg explains why he thinks it’s okay to have two different versions of the same character.
Evan Peters is the X Men Quicksilver!
“I’m sure they’ll do a good job with it,” he said about Marvel’s Quicksilver. “Part of the fun of this world we live in where there are multiple superhero franchises and now multiple version of the same character, it’s a little like classic repertory theatre, where you get to see different actors do interpretations of the same character.”
“Macbeth is an interesting one because all four of our main actors – McAvoy, Fassbender, Ian, Patrick – have done famous productions of Macbeth. If the world can handle that, it can definitely handle two Quicksilvers.”
But is this the case? Personally I think the comparison with Macbeth is a little off. After all, hundreds of actors have been playing the same Shakespearean roles for hundreds of years. But in the context of superhero movies, it very rarely happens. Of course, there’s nothing new when it comes to recasting an iconic role, just look at the likes of Batman and Superman, who have seen a number of actors portraying the roles over the years.
Concept art for Marvel’s take on Quicksilver
But the Quicksilver problem is a little different. After all, with Quicksilver set to appear in ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’, we’re going to have the same character portrayed by different actors during the same time frame. And with the overwhelmingly positive response to Evan Peters in ‘Days of Future Past’ it looks as though Marvel has its work cut out.
“In my first draft of the script, that character was actually young Juggernaut,” Kinberg explained. “One of the first things [director] Bryan Singer said about the script was we needed a different character, because he felt like Juggernaut’s powers had visually been fully explored in X3.”
“Quicksilver was really Bryan’s idea, and he had this very clear sense of the tone of the character, who he wanted to play the character and how we would shoot that kitchen scene.”
You need to see this scene!
Of course, for those who’ve seen ‘Days of Future Past’ (if you have not yet… shame on you), the ‘kitchen scene’ is one of the standout moments of the entire film and by balancing Quicksilver’s powers with some hilarious moments, he’s going to be a difficult one to top.
“Bryan had high-speed photography that he found on the Internet that he showed us. We did a lot of tests of how it was going to work. That Quicksilver character is one of the many things Bryan brought to the movie.”
Quite how Marvel’s version of Quicksilver is going to work remains to be seen and while production stills have appeared online depicting Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the role, it looks as though we’ll have to wait until ‘Age of Ultron’ is released to get a better idea of how his powers will work on screen. From the photos all I can say is his costume is already better than the one in Days of Future Past.
Aaron Taylor – Johnson on set as Quicksilver for Age of Ultron.
But for now, I can’t help thinking that Marvel have a tough time ahead of them if they want to top the awesome power of X-men’s Quicksilver.
What did you think of Quicksilver’s powers? Will Marvel top it? Let me know your thoughts.
Hero Nut 
I’ve never read an X-Men comic in my life, so I went into the film knowing absolutely nothing about the character, expect that he was fast and people were unhappy with how the character looked.
Then I saw X-Men Days of Future Past (twice in one week!) and I LOVED the character. He was so cool, and hilarious! I thought the kitchen scene was FANTASTIC! It was not only visually impressive, but it had a real sense of wit in it. Great scene.
I have to say, I think Marvel will have their work cut out for them as least as far as the fans are concerned. The reaction to Quicksilver in X-Men DOFP seems to be one of universal acclaim (if Youtube is any guarantee) so Aaron Taylor Johnson (and Joss Whedon and Marvel) will be in the position of having to win over the fans of the comic book. I also think it will be difficult because Marvel’s Quicksilver CANNOT be as faithful to the comic books. From what I understand, they’re not allowed to mention the X gene or mutation.
For the average movie goer, it might be different. I don’t know if the average person will remember Quicksilver long term, no matter how much they may have enjoyed this scene. They may not remember him next year. Tough call.
I have to say, I don’t know how Marvel can do a better job than Fox and Brian Singer did with Quicksilver. When I go to see the movie, I will remember Quicksilver, in part because I will be buying X-Men DOFP and watching it in the meantime.
I agree with some of your points but I do feel that the Avengers Quicksilver looks more in line with the comics and overall will be as the character has very close ties to the avengers more than the x men.
Thanks for reading 🙂
You also bring up a great point about actors portraying a role in the theater (or in a Shakespeare film) is somewhat different than a film. We rarely have an actor playing the same role in two different films coming out around the same time. There is usually a few years at least between them.
I love how polite Singer tries to be about Juggernaut. Yeah, he was ‘fully explored’. I another words he was ruined in X3. Ha.
Oh so true. Thanks for reading!
I didn’t know they were making a film just on his character! I will have to add that to my want to see list, he was pretty funny in this movie.
I think the two Quicklsilver’s would be more acceptable if the movies weren’t being released closely. If we saw Evan Peters 5 years ago and saw Aaron Taylor today we would be fine with it. Like the Batman films-when I was younger George Clooney was Batman, now it’s Christian Bale. I think it will be okay.
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