The X-Men are coming to the MCU. The hints have been building, and at some point, the full force of Marvel’s mutants will be unleashed in a particularly uncanny way on the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Superhero movie fans are more than familiar with the X-Men after Fox’s franchise gave us almost 20 years and 13 movies of mutant adventures. Dark Phoenix and New Mutants may have ended the run on a sour note, but they can reach new heights in the MCU.
Mutants in the MCU
The first appearance of an X-Man, that we know of, came in the familiar form of Patrick Stewart’s Professor Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. It was a fan-pleasing nod until its conclusive ending, referencing Xavier in X-Men: The Animated Series as much as the Fox films.
We can expect Xavier to be recast along with the vast majority of big-ticket mutants, but we’ll have to put up with two familiar faces for the time being, one grizzly and one not-so-pretty, when Wolverine and Wade Wilson meet in Deadpool 3, the MCU debut for both characters.
Who else from the X-Men’s cast of leading and supporting characters could return? Fans are compiling their wishlists, but here’s our pick of who we think is likely to return to movie screens soon and how it could happen.
Magneto
When you think about the top tier of Marvel villains, Erik Magnus Lehnsherr aks Magneto is there. The MCU can’t be complete without the Master of Magnetism, but he’s more than just a bad guy. The past 60 years have rounded and evolved Magneto’s character and purpose, creating one of the most interesting villains in fiction. The Fox movie series did a good job of examining those gray shades as it looped time to propel him from World’s Most Wanted to a proto-X-Man.
Magento can play an enormous, intertwined role across every part of the MCU. We’d love to see him showcase a personal Atomic Saga and spin-off into an epic Magneto limited series on Disney Plus.
Storm
Ororo Munroe, the mighty mutant Storm, can bring many things to play in the MCU. Her Omega-level mutant ability to control local weather systems and planetary ecosystems uniquely combines with her lineage of magic-wielding African princesses. She may have made multiple appearances in the Fox series, but Storm hasn’t lived up to her comic book counterpart.
As one of the all-time most powerful mutants, Ororo should stake her place in the MCU, and we can see her making a thunderous entrance in the third Black Panther movie.
Apocalypse
Perhaps the most underserved antagonist in the Fox movies, Apocalypse has so much more to give to mutantkind’s celluloid journey. The ancient mutant only arrived in 1985 but has more than made his presence felt. As he’s been linked to Multiverse Saga bad guy Kang, Phase Five of the MCU could plant seeds that will come to fruition further down the line.
Apocalypse’s powers are mighty, including immortality and the ability to control every molecule in his body. That mix of change and longevity in one mighty form makes him a real threat. The MCU should lean into the long life of En Sabah Nur, even in an alternative reality where he’s in his ascendancy.
Jean Grey (Phoenix)
Phoenix was let down in the Fox franchise not once but twice. In The Last Stand, she never got a chance to shine as she moodily stomped around with lower-level mutants. By Dark Phoenix, as the unique period stylings of the X-Men prequel series fell away, nobody cared.
The Phoenix Force that inhabits the already powerful Jean Grey is a multiverse-level threat; at full strength second only to the One-Above-All. If the future seventh and eighth phases of the MCU were to take us on a Cosmic Saga, which saw the Fantastic Four pack off Galactus, the follow-up could see the X-Men risk everything to stop the multiverse-ending threat of the Phoenix and retrieve their much-missed team member.
Legion
Best known for Noah Hawley’s fantastic offshoot series Legion that starred Dan Stevens, David Haller aka Legion never made it into Fox’s movie franchise. Given a chance, the fascinating and troubled mutant can make major waves to an overarching X-saga, including creating parallel realities. Legion the son of Charles Xavier but also a mutant struggling with splintered personalities, each with distinct mutant powers. He’s not the only character with multiple personalities — Typhoid Mary is rumored to be launching strength into the universe in Deadpool 3 — but he can take the MCU to incredible new places.
We’ve seen the Legion series, so let’s see him unleashed in the major X-Men films series, put Xaver to the test, and as he did briefly in the comics, maybe join the superteam.
Kitty Pryde
Kitty Pryde was integral to comic writer Chris Claremont’s definitive run. Kitty introduced a new era of X-Men, just as Marvel Girl aka Jean Grey walked us into Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s X-Men #1 in 1963. One crucial difference between the two is that discounting all the power of Jean’s alter-ego, Shadowcat Kitty Pryde has proven to be the most powerful mutant.
Despite joining the Fox films late, she proved her worth in the otherwise disappointing trilogy closer The Last Stand and then X-Men: Days of Future Past, just as she did in the comic arc that inspired that time-twisting film. Kitty Pryde could do with a Disney Plus series, and why not as a double act with Colossus?
William Stryker
Classic X-Men foe Stryker fits straight into the MCU’s line of military titans, but he’s also so much more. As an army sergeant and head of Weapon X, he’s the kind of soldier-meets-admin bad guy who sits easily in the legacy of Alexander Pierce and von Strucker. In the comics, Stryker’s staunch opposition to the mutant revolution took an even more interesting turn when he became a televangelist. That may be a bit on the nose for the movies, but it’s certainly not a version that’s made it to live-action. The MCU’s not seen a vendetta that can rival this.
We’d put a good load of adamantium on Wolverine leading a series of MCU movies, with Stryker as enemy number one. At the very least it can banish memories of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Mystique
Raven Darkhölme aka Mystique has proved to be an essential part of the celluloid X-Men universe, growing from a throwaway distraction to a central figure in the X-Men’s rise and fall. The MCU version will walk in the shadow of Jennifer Lawrence’s most recent charismatic take, but there’s plenty of Raven left to explore.
When the consequences of Secret Invasion are known, we’d think Mystique will be at the front of the new X-Men movies, if not impersonating key political figures a cut-scene a movie or two before.
Bolivar Trask
The Sentinels went from ridiculous to sublime during Fox’s X-Men run, making the most of drawn-out fan anticipation. There are few Earth-bound threats that can unleash a mutant spectacle like these giant mutant-hunting robots turning up.
Their creator could be the key. After his all-too-brief appearance in X-Men: Days of Future Past, there’s more to come from the anti-mutant scientist Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced in the mid-1960s. We’re not sure how the MCU will introduce their mutants, but it’s hard to imagine them missing the chance for social commentary and metaphor. It was there in the previous X-Men movies at their strongest, and there’s plenty left from Trask and his family.
Bolivar’s son, Larry, continued his father’s work creating a deadly new breed of avenging Sentinels before realizing he was a mutant with precognitive powers. Leaving the time travel aside, that could form a scintillating sub-plot for an early X-Men movie.
Emma Frost
X-Men: First Class, Matthew Vaughn’s reboot of the X-Men franchise with a period flourish was, well, first class, but it didn’t do all of its characters justice. Members of the Hellfire Club, including Sebastian Shaw, deserve more time on screen. Most of all, Emma Frost demands the chance to shine (in her diamond form).
If there’s room for a Xavier School series on Disney Plus, it could do worse than examine the consequences of the White Queen’s move from highly powered villain to headmistress. It’s the opposite journey to the one Mystique and Magneto went on in the Fox saga.