Board Thread:Movies/@comment-1895174-20131011181202/@comment-1895174-20131111024700

Something that's always rubbed me the wrong way: Variety article: "Chronicle" helmer Josh Trank is on board to direct, hoping to do for "Fantastic Four" what Fox recently did with the "X-Men" franchise — reinvigorate the series with a group of younger, rising stars and build the films around them. Let's actually put that to the test.

On 6 March 2015, when the Fantastic Four reboot will be released, the listed actors will be the following ages:
 * Kate Mara - 32
 * Kit Harrington - 28
 * Miles Teller - 28
 * Jack O'Connell - 24
 * Saoirse Ronan - 21

When X-Men was released on 14 July 2000, the actors were the following ages:
 * Ian McKellen - 61
 * Patrick Stewart - 60
 * Bruce Davison - 53
 * Famke Janssen - 34
 * Halle Berry - 33
 * Tyler Mane - 33
 * Hugh Jackman - 31
 * Rebecca Romijn - 27
 * James Marsden - 26
 * Ray Park - 25
 * Anna Paquin - 17

Overview:
 * Median age of FF hopefuls - 28
 * Average age of FF hopefuls - 26


 * Median age of X-Men cast - 33 (5 yr diff)
 * Average age of X-Men cast - 36 (10 yr diff)
 * Average age of X-Men cast w/o outliers* - 31 (5 yr diff)


 * *Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's ages are statistically outliers

"Younger" stars, my ***. Three of the four "main" X-Men (Jean, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops) were in their 30's. As for "rising", X-Men was made at a time when most big stars wouldn't be caught dead doing a comic book movie. Getting relative unknowns was a necessity, not a choice.