Now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced the concept of alternate realities and splintered timelines into the franchise, all bets are off as to who could potentially show up across the rest of Phase Four and beyond.
If somebody had told you a couple of years ago that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would end up fighting side-by-side with Tom Holland in a Spider-Man movie you’d have laughed them out of the building, and things are only going to open up even further when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in May.
The MCU’s X-Men reboot remains shrouded in secrecy, but that hasn’t stopped bountiful rumors making the rounds that some legacy players could be poised for a cameo appearance, although most of the chatter inevitably revolves around Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
Speaking to ScreenRant, former Iceman Shawn Ashmore admitted that if he was invited to play Bobby Drake again, he’s say yes in a heartbeat.
“Yeah, I haven’t seen the newest Spider-Man movie, but I know that — I’m trying not to get spoiled — but I know that everybody from everywhere comes. So look, after Days of Future Past, I had kind of accepted that was gonna be our last film, with this group of actors, anyway. Disney was taking over the rights. It felt like the end for our characters, the original trilogy cast, it felt kind of like the end of the story.
And I’ve kind of accepted that. But obviously, anything’s possible, and I have no idea what they’re going to do. Are they going to cast completely new actors and start fresh? Are they going to pull actors from the Fox X-Men trilogy into the Marvel Universe? I don’t know. If it happened, would I do it? 100%. No question. I grew up playing that character. I’m a comic book fan. It’s things that I’m into. So, I would do it again in a second. But I’ve kind of accepted the fact that I got four movies, and that might be it. And I’m pretty happy with that.”
The smartest approach for the rebooted X-Men would be to wipe the slate completely clean, because we’ve already seen thirteen movies featuring most of the same characters in the span of 20 years. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, because it definitely can, but Marvel will surely be focused on the future as opposed to the past.
