X-Men screenwriter reveals why Magneto's anti-telepathy helmet was introduced
Before the movie, he simply liked helmets.
Mandela effect? More like Magneto effect. You might've noticed Magneto didn't get telepathy-blocking powers from his helmet anywhere until the first X-Men movie, and now screenwriter David Hayter (also known as the voice of Solid and Naked Snake) has revealed how that happened.
The cool thing about Twitter is that users often find themselves thinking about and debating the nerdiest little details of just about everything. Many times, these chats reach the screens of creatives who can shed some light on our favorite works of fiction. In this case, the man responsible for the first X-Men movie's script has explained why Magneto's helmet becoming one of his strongest assets against Charles Xavier became a thing. Turns out it almost didn't happen.
Hayter said the question of why Xavier couldn't just neutralize Magneto with his busted telepathic powers was brought up by director Bryan Singer, and since no one had a good answer, his helmet was made the ultimate weapon against his old friend-turned-enemy. And in case you were wondering: No, that hadn't been properly established in the comics beforehand, somehow.
The history and significance of Magneto's helmet is quite long and complex, actually, but the pre-2000 comics never gave a definitive answer as to Erik Lehnsherr's sudden capacity to fight against Xavier's mind intrusions or simply dissuade him from even trying. In fact, Magneto also has a long and troubled history in relation to telepathy over the decades, oftentimes showing a surprisingly powerful mental prowess. "It was just the helmet" was never considered until the live-action movie came out though.
While this addition 'fixed' one of the many 'plot/logic holes' of the X-Men stories moving forward, it also raised another question with no possible convincing answer: why didn't Xavier just track down other Brotherhood members? The whole discussion becomes even funnier when you think about how Juggernaut already had a helmet which protected him from psychic attacks way earlier.