In the X-Men movie universe, Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters had trouble getting off the ground. After establishing his childhood home as a center for learning following X-Men: First Class, Charles was devastated when most of his first batch of students left due to the Vietnam War, thus why he hit his low point in X-Men: Days of Future Past. 10 years later, X-Men: Apocalypse will finally show the school up and running in this new timeline, and now you can see one of the students, Jubilation “Jubilee” Lee, pitch why misunderstood youths in 1983 should attend this fine institute in a TV commercial.
Made with all the best advertising recording equipment and visual effects money can buy in 1983, this new X-Men: Apocalypse viral video features Jubilee, played by Lana Condor, explaining why Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is great for young mutants who don’t want to hide their gifts anymore. Whether you’re accidentally killing flowers, being teased by the soccer jocks, have reptilian-like eyes or any number of problems, Xavier’s school is the place where these outcast kids and teens to meet other like them. Under world-renowned geneticist Charles Xavier’s guidance, students can learn how to control their gifts and also get the training and education to make it in the “fast-paced” 1983 workplace, which includes working on those gigantic computers once considered cutting-edge. The video caps off with Jubilee and some other students agreeing that Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters if “totally rad,” leading to Stan Lee prompting viewers to call the number on their screen for more information.
It’s hard to tell what the most ‘80s part of this pitch video was. The effects, the music, the cheesy ending, all of it is clearly a product of three decades past. Regardless, this is some cover marketing for X-Men: Apocalypse, and is the latest in the movie using 1980s nostalgia to market the main time period. Previous examples include a TV special delving into Apocalypse’s past and video games featuring mutants. Thanks to Wolverine going back to 1973 in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the world found out about mutants sooner than in the previous timeline, so with the school’s existence being more important than ever, Charles needs to spend those ad dollars to spread the word.
Jubilee is one of the many well-known X-Men characters who will be students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters in X-Men: Apocalypse. Her classmates include Cyclops, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler, but unlike those three, we haven’t seen Jubilee involved in the big battles teased in the previews. Perhaps she’ll play a bigger role in future movies, but for now, it looks like she’s enjoying her time at the school among other mutants, and she wants 1980s TV watchers to know that.
X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27.
