Reading List (Super behind but reading them nonetheless):
DC: Currently figuring that out
Marvel: Read above
Image: Killadelphia, Nightmare Blog
Other: The Antagonist, Something is Killing the Children, Avatar: TLAB
Manga: My Hero Academia, MHA: Vigilanties, Soul Eater: the Perfect Edition, Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, Witch Hat Atelier, Kaiju No. 8
This.... I agree, I feel Disney wants to disregard the whole holocaust backstory but that is what shaped Erik. I like Giancarlo and he does have the acting prowess to be Erik and even Charles if they wanted but he doesn't have to be either because there are enough characters for him to be.... Moses Magnum pops up in my head but why not Sinister? With makeup and prosthetics....
They have a blank slate to approach the X-corner of the MCU... if they want to use Magneto, they could portray him as an old recluse the government (SHIELD) is aware of but leave alone on his island (Avalon or Genosha).
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."- Jesus
John 14:6
him being a Rwandan or Serbian isn't a better story. that's why the change shouldn't be made. it's not rocket science.
I personally would go with the idea that the X-men were a secret covert ops group working for the government - similar to the original Silver Age premise. They helped the government keep the existence of mutants secrets in return for being able to run the school and ensure that mutants wouldn't be persecuted by the authorities. And as a result of this history, not just mutants like Magneto or Mystique, but even ordinary mutants targeted by humans, view the X-men as 'sell-outs' and traitors - something which leads some of the X-men to doubt the wisdom of Xavier's stance, and sets the stage for the 'evolution' of the team.
It also ties into an idea which the Dark Phoenix movie touched upon pretty well in its first half, before dropping - the notion that the X-men need to be seen as heroes and saviors by the public at all costs to 'justify' the survival of mutants in society. It mirrors how, in real-life, minorities are expected to prove themselves to be even more 'virtuous', 'loyal' or 'worthy' than other citizens. That's an idea I'd love to see explored in future films.
Because WWII is such a fixed place in time, it ages Magneto essentially meaning he cannot exist as a potent force in modern times without changes to his power set. The problem is that mags is powerful enough as is, making him immortal or ageless is excessive, also we already have cap who clearly fixes the date of the war. The easy fix is to borrow from cap and say mags was frozen by the Nazis for an unspecified period, seeing his abilities they wished to study him... but it will be interesting to see what path marvel choose.
I don't know if this possible idea was brought up because I wasn't going to read all 16 pages, but what if you brought in the High Evolutionary to explain where all the older mutants are? H.E. could be an alien, or a human evolved through alien means. In the early 60's I would have him collect most of the more powerful mutants for study -- mutants like Megneto, Professor X, Selene, Destiny, Mystique, Banshee, Mastermind, Toad, Wolverine, etc. And then he would put them in some sort of hibernation in the Wundagore Mountain, maybe because he guessed mutants would be the dominate species far too quickly, which in turn would lead to a war with humans that would eventually destroy the world or whatever.
And what if the H.E. could have suppressed the X-Gene in the world's populace to stop or delay the mutant domination? That could explain why no mutants have been seen during modern times. Somehow during or after the Snap they were released. The older mutants dispersed into the world again with new and differing purposes. Once they were content with hiding, not knowing there was so many of them. Now they knew the truth and a change will come. Megneto declares war on humankind. Professor X vows to find the emerging mutants to train, so they can co-exist.
The reason they were released could be Mr. Sinister, who in turn releases the suppression on the X-Gene and that how the story began. Mr. Sinister could have been H.E. assistant who later kills him, because he wanted more mutants out in the world to experiment on.
So BAM!! Mr Sinister is the main villain instead of Megneto or the human ran government, until much later in the franchise.
Magento can still have his WWII past, he could still have a friendship with Xavier, who in turn served in the Korean War. They both could be there during the formation of the Israeli statehood. Megneto could even be the grandfather of Wanda and Pietro. Lorna could be his daughter who was also captured by H.E.
We are going have to tackle what that means because people are saying it and I wonder where to go it. If you are putting character in setting today for example JSA what do you a lot characters stuff is built around World War II. Wars are not interchangeable but they have similarities. So tell a familiar story you would use a present war adjusting a fictional story out of necessity. Holocaust is very a specific thing but it is a genocide by definition for a event to be call that they have something things in common. So they are literally not the same thing but they are the same horrible thing.
Now there is a level of distaste in this topic when you sit back and think about is kinda of mess up. I have said things in hindsight which by accident trivialize a real horrible thing to talk about fictional character origin and why changing it could be good. But as a reminder this what is being talk about Holocaust 6 million Jews killed about one fifth of Jewish population worldwide, in total 11 million people were killed in these numbers were Soviet citizens and POW, Slavs,Roma, Gay Men, Jehovah's Witnesses and Black people. Rwanda Genocide between 500,000–1,000,000 people were killed. Cambodian Killing Fields about 1.7 million people killed,etc. I can never find right words and I almost always end going into silly back forth people when I know the topic is serious thing.My concern angle has always been this
Darfur genocide Darfur, Sudan 2003 Present 98,00 to 500,000
Rohingya genocide Myanmar 2017 Present 9,000 to 43,000
Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL Northern Iraq and Syria 2014 Present 2,100 to 4,400
For me this always been convergence of if Magneto normal history can't be told then you have a opportunity to shine a light another tragedy with understanding of that part of the world still has ethnic cleansing. For me it is using of Marvel biggest villains as a tool to gain attention for a real life tragedies that are still ongoing. Sometimes I have gone about that badly expressing that opinion with my words. I believe if the story was done right it would be bring attention and actually help people today. For me that outweighs the usual hey you shouldn't change character race, these two events aren't interchangeable, hey you are removing a minority who also has strong history of mistreatment. I get why people disagree with changing the character but I think using Magneto would be the highest impact you could have something other or new character couldn't do. Maybe I am wrong maybe another character like a Black Panther in his movie would be better, maybe a protagonist who calls out fictional nation for not helping Africa written by someone good would have a bigger impact. Anyways for me it has been this can bring attention those areas in that list above.