X2 (film)

X2 (promoted in some markets as X2: X-Men United or X-Men 2: X-Men United) is an American movie, first released in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2003, and in the United States on May 2. The film is a sequel to X-Men. It was directed by Bryan Singer, and starred an ensemble cast including Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, and Alan Cumming.

Differences from the comic book

Longtime fans of the X-Men title will recognize that some liberties have been taken with the X-Men characters. While the movie need not follow all the conventions of the comic, they are interesting to note.

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• Nightcrawler's blue fur has been replaced by skin of the same color covered in self-made angelic glyph tattoos.
• Iceman appears as a teenager and appears much younger than many of the other X-Men. In the comics, Iceman was one of the original X-Men. He appeared and left many years before the 1980s X-Men like Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine. If he were around at all, he would appear closer to Jean Grey's age.
• Colossus is in this movie but has only a very small part and is not part of the X-Men team, only an older student of the academy. While young in age when he began with the X-Men, he was a full-fledged member for many years in the comics. In addition, he speaks with an American accent, as opposed to the expected Russian accent.
• William Stryker is a zealot preacher as in the comics, while the film's version is the head commander of the covert black ops program Weapon X. His son, Jason, is a very loose incarnation of Jason "Mastermind" Wyngarde, who was a full-grown, mentally and physically able illusionist (with no relation to Stryker) from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Hellfire Club in the comics, but is a wheelchair-bound teenager half conscious bombarded on sedatives in the film.