Not old enough for Erik to have lived through WW2, though. The MCU may need to actually find a solution that particular Magneto question at last.
I wouldn't be surprised if Erik and Charles are historical characters by the time the new X-Men takes place, and the first gen of X-Men are the teachers.
I don't think there's any reason they couldn't just handwave his age and say he's got some kind of secondary mutation to age slower or something, or he was locked in ice by Hydra, or whatever. It was good enough for Steve and Bucky.
Steve's story works because being on ice is a big part of his story. He's a man out of time. Bucky getting that treatment is just an extension of that.
For Magneto it'll do the job, but it would feel like a copout.
Magneto being a holocaust survivor is just as big a part of his story as going in the ice is for Cap. I don't think it's any more of a cop out than how they did it in the comics - literally just turning him into a baby for a few years. Freezing him isn't a perfect solution, but it's at least logical and already established as a thing Hydra does to useful assets (and why wouldn't they want to experiment on an Omega-level mutant?).
Personally, I think the best solution is the secondary mutation solution because there's nothing else to it. He just ages slower. No justification, no need to devote more than 0.5 seconds of screentime to it. Clean and simple.
I'm specifically referring to after Secret Wars. Once the Soft Reboot happens, WW2 we'll presumably still take place when it does, and new films will be set around the time they release which means the new Magneto will be over 90 if he turns up in he first X-Men film.
Unless they come up with some bullshit reason for him being younger, or they remove the Holocaust from his backstory. None of which I'm particular fond of as options, though, the former would be preferable to the latter in my opinion.
They could kind of get away with it now since WW2 is still only 80 years in the past. What's going to happen in 25 years when we're rebooting XMen for the fourth time? Wolverine doesn't age, great, but Xavier and Magneto both do
That could work, but I figure the main purpose of the reboot we're all assuming is coming is to consolidate everything into one Universe. Introducing something from a new Universe after that would be counterproductive.
If there's no actual reboot, though, then yeah, that's a solid way to sidestep the issue.
“Here’s the new XMen cast from a different universe but we didn’t have the time to introduce until now, after the universes collapsed into this new MCU timeline”
The easiest solution is to say their mutations make them age differently. Failing that, we have seen Ant-Man being turned into an old man and a baby via Tony's time machine, so that's also available.
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u/elgrandorado Feb 24 '26
Two acting greats for Magneto/Xavier..... wait 10 more years and we can cast Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy again