There is no more intense relationship in the X-Men universe that than between Professor Charles Xavier and his longtime friend and adversary, Magneto (or “Magnus” or “Eric Lehnsherr” — he had many names over 50 years). In the books, which began in 1963, they had met as young men right after World War II, a time when teenaged Lehnsherr had lost his parents in Hitler’s Holocaust. Each was was idealistic and driven; they bonded over hopes for a better world and the fact that each was discovering the astounding mutant powers growing within him. When their ideals grew apart, Charles and Magnus became adversaries, never enemies (at least in our interpretation). We chose to stress this relationship in X-MEN:TAS more than it had been in the books since each man represented a philosophical choice for the many mutants we would meet over 76 episodes: to cooperate with humans, or to separate from them. This was not the traditional hero/villain set-up. We wanted Magneto to be at times as sympathetic as Charles. We wanted to show the deep affection each had for the other. We even threw them together in The Savageland for short bits of eleven episodes in Season Two. To showcase this relationship, the many X-MEN movies have chosen four of the finest dramatic actors in the world: Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy to play Professor X at various ages, and Ian McKellan and Michael Fassbender to play Magneto. Every X-Men fan knows their names and faces. The actors that you may not know as well are the two men who so beautifully established the characters eight years earlier in our X-MEN:TAS show. Cedric Smith (pictured on the right) was commanding and compassionate as Charles Xavier, and David Hemblen (on the left) was his equal as Magnus. It was no accident that, in the series finale, when the X-Men team had to bid a final farewell to their beloved leader, Magneto was there as well to say goodbye.
