For the past few years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pillaging their newly acquired 20th Century Fox productions X-Men movies for all the nostalgia money they’re worth. They made a buddy movie with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine they brought back Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier just to kill him a third time, and they’re bringing back everyone from James Marsden’s Cyclops to Alan Cummings’ Nightcrawler for cameos in the massive multiversal epic that is Avengers: Doomsday.
But that nostalgia is drying up; there doesn’t seem to be much juice left in the tank, and after the soft reset of Secret Wars in 2027, the MCU will finally introduce its own X-Men team, separate from the established Fox canon. Thunderbolt* director Jake Schreier has been hired to lead The MCUs X-Men reboot (a very promising sign), and Beef creator Lee Sung Jin and The bear showrunner Joanna Calo is working on the script (another very, very promising sign).
Getting the tone right is important, but they also need to pick the right characters to round out the initial lineup. We take Professor X as a given – that wouldn’t really be X-Men without him – but he needs these beloved heroes fighting alongside him.
Cyclops
Cyclops should have the same sort of role in the MCU’s first X-Men movies that Captain America was in the first one Avengers film. He is the leader of the team; the sensible, hard-working one who encourages his teammates to stay focused and achieve their goals together as a unit.
Previous X-Men movies have portrayed Scott Summers as the lame, goody-goody flip side of Wolverine, but the reboot should round him out as his own character. Cyclops may be a bit of an idiot, but he’s also fiercely loyal, has a strong sense of duty to his team, and is torn by internalized trauma. The new film will dig into all that.
Storm
Storm has always been a beloved member of the team, but she was taken to a whole new level of iconic when Halle Berry played her in the movies. Berry’s Storm is second only to Jackman’s Wolverine in terms of star power – they were the reason people kept coming back (along with Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, of course).
The MCU’s X-Men team will feel incomplete without Storm. Storm is one of the most relatable X-Men, so having her around will be handy to keep all the comic book spectacle grounded in an emotional reality.
Nightcrawler
There are very few superheroes whose powers look as amazing in live-action as Nightcrawler. He is a teleporter that confuses the entire room, confusing his enemies and disappearing into the shadows.
A great filmmaker could have a field day with Nightcrawler’s abilities. X2opening sequence in the White House was a prime example of how great a live-action Nightcrawler can be.
Anniversary
It’s important for the MCU’s X-Men to have an inclusive lineup to show that X-Men is an allegory about civil rightsand that everyone is welcome at Xavier’s School for Gifted Young People. Jubilee is one of the most iconic Asian-American superheroes. She wasn’t an OG X-Man, but she quickly became a fan favorite.
Jubilee was barely in the previous live-action films, but she had a huge role in it X-Men: The Animated Series and its Marvel Studios-led revival X-Men ’97. It’s about time she got a proper live-action introduction with a substantial character arc across multiple films.
Gambit
Gambit finally got his moment in the sun in live-action when Channing Tatum played him as a lost soul in The Void in Deadpool and Wolverine. Mainstream audiences didn’t know about this Cajun French closeup magician until Tatum’s hysterically self-effacing turn in the dream role he lost years earlier, but now everyone knows who Gambit is.
Although Gambit is not an original member of the X-Men, he is one of the best characters to come out of these comics. And since he didn’t get a big role in the Fox movies, giving him a big role in the MCU reboot would help set it apart.
Jean Grey
Maybe Marvel already is introduces Jean Gray i Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The leading rumor about Sadie Sink’s mysterious character is that she’s playing Jean — and she certainly looks the part. Jean is one of the most complicated characters in the X-Men, so she would provide the MCU’s reboot with a lot of dramatic juice.
Fox adapted the “Dark Phoenix Saga” comics twice in just over a decade, and the studio completely botched the iconic story both times. It seems inevitable that the MCU will address that as well, but it should properly establish who Jean is before turning her into a villain.
Kitty Pryde
The X-Men world is so vast and sprawling that any film that builds that world from scratch needs an audience surrogate. Bringing an outsider into that world is a shortcut for the writers to explain everything in a nice, simple, digestible way for newcomers.
In Bryan Singer’s original X-Men movie that the POV character was Rogue. But for the MCU reboot, I think Kitty Pryde would be the perfect point-of-view character to introduce audiences to this team and the world they inhabit.
Iceman
Iceman is one of the OGs from when the X-Men consisted of only five mutants. But he’s never really been done justice in live-action. From Frozone Unbelievable movie is undeniable proof that a superhero with ice powers can look really cool in a movie, but the earlier X-Men movies never made it.
Iceman needs to feature prominently in the MCUs X-Men reboot purely as a sign of respect for one of the OGs But this character also has so much more potential than we’ve seen tapped into in the previous films.
Animal
Like Iceman, Beast is another of the OGs, but unlike Iceman, he’s been done justice on the big screen before. Kelsey Grammer had a small but memorable role as Beast in the original trilogy, then Nicholas Hoult’s Hank McCoy was given a much larger role in the story in the prequel series.
All in all, we’ve seen plenty of Hank over the years. But aside from a few glimpses during Grammer’s tenure, we’ve never seen Beast go full beast mode in a movie before. Your move, Feige.
Wolverine
There has been some debate as to whether or not Wolverine should be part of the OG X-Men lineup in the MCU. Wolverine wasn’t an OG X-Man in the comics, but he completely consumed the latter X-Men film franchise; he overshadowed all others and became its entire focal point. He got three solo movies, and he’s since been reintroduced into the MCU itself, so maybe the next incarnation of this franchise should take a break from Wolvie.
But that said, Wolverine is by far the most iconic X-Man. Many casual viewers may not even show up for one X-Men movie if they hear Wolverine isn’t in it. Plus, whoever is foolish enough to take on the daunting task of replacing Hugh Jackman will inevitably generate a lot of hype and speculation.
- Movie(s)
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X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocal70, (2016), (2016) Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New MutantsDeadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- tv show(s)
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X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-202497)
- Video games
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X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men Vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel Vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel Vs. Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse, (X2005ine’s X2005) (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- First movie
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X-Men (2000)
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