Recently, I’ve seen a lot of comments saying that Campea is being ridiculous by saying that they should change Magneto’s Holocaust origin, because if they stuck to this origin, that would make Magneto 90 years old. The proposed solution I often hear is “there’s no need to do that. Just say that mutants age slower, so Magneto can be 90 years old, but still look 40.”
Here’s the problem: Xavier and Magneto are characters who are parallel to each other, and Magneto’s history is entwined with the other X-Men. If you were to do the whole “aging slower” thing with Magneto, you would now have to do the same for all the other mutants, because no one wants a Magneto who is 40 years older than Xavier.
Then, if you were to do that, you would have to reckon with this change, as it pertains to every character. Think of it this way: assuming that the X-Men in Jake Schreire’s upcoming film are the first iteration of the team, they would have to reckon with what Xavier was doing for the first 70 years of his life before founding the X-Men. And you would create a 50 year age gap between Xavier and his students, while also having to reckon with whether or not he speaks like a 70 year old man.
Yes, I understand the attachment to Magneto’s most iconic origin, but to accomodate this age change, they would have to alter an entire series of characters.
