Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Most of the details of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday have been kept a closely-guarded secret. However, we already know what is arguably the most exciting part of this film: the fact that it will involve characters from the original 20th Century Fox X-Men movies. One exciting trailer featured Cyclops unleashing his full power; in another scene, there’s a tender reunion between Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto. The two were bitter foes in the original films, and there’s something genuinely moving about seeing them playing a friendly game of chess. The scene was presumably easy to film because Stewart and McKellen are such great friends in real life.
While McKellen may be chummy with one-time rival on and off the screen, he has found a very different foe for his real-world anger. Recently, the actor attended a film festival in Rome and discussed details about Avengers: Doomsday. This included a note from the Russo Brothers directing the film: namely, that he should look as if he really hates what his character is destroying. With that in mind, McKellen shouted “Mar-a-Lago,” indicating his desire for Magneto to annihilate the Florida home of President Donald Trump.
Magneto Declares War On Donald Trump
During his discussion at the Cinema in Piazza film festival, Ian McKellen mentioned a juicy detail about Avengers: Doomsday. “They got me at one point to destroy New Jersey.” This could indicate that Magneto goes back to his villainous ways and starts engaging in the kinds of mass destruction we haven’t seen from the character since X-Men: Apocalypse. However, this horrific act may actually be heroic: the recent synopsis for Doomsday lends credence to the theory that parallel realities will start crashing into each other. In the comics, the only way to keep both Earths from being destroyed is for one to take the other out, so Magneto could be fighting to save billions of lives.
At any rate, the Russo Brothers didn’t like McKellen’s initial portrayal of his character’s destructive rampage. They gave him a fairly simple directorial note: according to the actor, they “told me to look more furious: make it look as if you hate what you’re destroying.” To do this, McKellen seemingly decided to envision something that he’d like to see Magneto destroy in real life. To the delight of many in the crowd, McKellen relayed his simple response to the directors. “So I stood there, and I shouted: ‘Mar-a-Lago!’”
There And Back Again: A Mutant’s Tale
For some, McKellen’s film festival tale raised more than a few eyebrows for multiple reasons. First, it was surprising to hear him get so political at a film festival otherwise dedicated to movies. Second, while he only named a place and not a person, some saw this as a kind of implied threat against Donald Trump; the equivalent of telling the president that, if McKellen actually had Magneto’s powers, he’d come gunning for a politician he hates. Now, is that something the Magneto of the comics and films has done on multiple occasions? Absolutely. But hearing a fictional, supervillain-style threat come out of a beloved actor’s mouth was a bit much for some fans.
At any rate, this ended up being a relatively small blip during the film festival. McKellen didn’t go on an anti-Trump rant or anything; after sharing the weird Doomsday anecdote, he focused on other news, including the fact that he’d soon be traveling to New Zealand to reprise his role as Gandalf for the Andy Serkis film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Will the famous wizard be asked to destroy any in-universe structures, like Barad-Dur? Good news, then: McKellen knows exactly which real-world location he’ll fantasize about blowing up while unleashing his magical wrath!
