With Disney slowly taking steps towards acquiring Fox and all of its creative assets, the X-Men movie franchise is about to get shaken up in a major way. There are a couple of upcoming movies of the Fox slate that Disney has confirmed will still get theatrical releases, but after that, Marvel Studios will be free to step in and reshape the franchise how they see fit.
A lot of roles may get recast, but the popular characters could get picked out of the ensemble cast and expanded into solo movies. So, here are 10 Characters From The X-Men Movies Who We Hope Get Their Own Movie.
Magneto
After X-Men Origins: Wolverine, there was supposed to be a series of X-Men Origins movies. However, after the underwhelming response to that movie from both critics and audiences, the studio called off the whole thing. The second Origins movie was reportedly going to be X-Men Origins: Magneto, which would’ve been set during the Holocaust.
The plan was to make a superhero comic book version of something like Schindler’s List or The Pianist. With Marvel now regaining the rights to the X-Men characters, it could be the perfect time to revive the project, following Marvel’s model of fitting each of their movies into a different genre construct. Still, it might be a little bleak for their creative tone.
Mystique
Mystique has always been one of the most interesting and unique characters in the X-Men universe. She’s as deceptive as Catwoman, yet she also has shapeshifting superpowers to make conning people even easier. The recent movies have grossly underused her – and the great Jennifer Lawrence – so the only way to do her justice now is to give her a whole solo movie.
Yes, she gets killed off in the Dark Phoenix trailer, but a solo movie could easily be set before that movie (or the trailer is lying or Marvel will decide to retcon the whole thing and start from scratch – point being, nothing is final).
Storm
Halle Berry made the weather-controlling Ororo Munroe a famous character in the X-Men movies, but Alexandra Shipp has been playing her more recently and she’s one of the few reboot actors to actually win over fans. In one popular storyline in the comics, Storm actually married Black Panther and, as a result, became the Queen of Wakanda alongside him.
They were the Marvel universe’s ultimate power couple. With Marvel Studios getting the rights to the X-Men characters back and Black Panther not really being dead in the MCU (Avengers: Endgame will show us exactly how or why, but it’s pretty obvious), the timing is perfect to bring their union to the screen.
Quicksilver
One of the only reasons audiences still go to Fox’s X-Men movies is to see Evan Peters’ Quicksilver do his thing. He emerged in Days of Future Past with the movie’s most entertaining scene and stole the whole thing from the rest of the cast in just a few short minutes.
There had been issues with the MCU having their own short-lived version of the Quicksilver character, but now that they’re all under the same banner and the Aaron Taylor-Johnson version is dead (or so we think), it might be time for Peters to finally get his own solo movie.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead
GLAAD praised Deadpool 2 for its positive portrayal of a same-sex couple: “20th Century Fox have finally given countless moviegoers around the world what they’ve longed to see: LGBTQ superheroes in a relationship who protect the world together. Negasonic and Yukio’s storyline is a milestone in a genre that too often renders LGBTQ people invisible, and should send a message to other studios to follow this example of inclusive and smart storytelling.”
They’re fantastic characters and the fans love them, so why not give them their own movie? It would be the first superhero movie to star an LGBTQ character and the first superhero movie to focus on a same-sex relationship. So many boundaries to break down!
Professor X
This can’t follow the James McAvoy version, because frankly, very few moviegoers actually care about him. We know Charles Xavier as an old guy, like the Patrick Stewart version, with infinite wisdom and power. The role needs to be recast and that actor needs to make the character his own with a movie that emphasizes the incredible power of Xavier’s mind.
Professor X has often been called the Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Marvel universe’s mutant rights movement, so these sociopolitical themes could be best explored in a solo movie about him – as well as the character’s psychic powers, genius-level intelligence, and sixth sense.
Domino
Ever since she became the breakout star of Deadpool 2, fans have been clamoring for more Domino. And it’s not just comic book fans either. Zazie Beetz’s refusal to shave her armpits for the role made her a feminist icon, too, so she appeals to two entirely different audience quadrants.
Fortunately, Marvel has felt the same way from the beginning – they reportedly signed Beetz on for three movies when she first got cast. So, it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of her. But those movies can’t all be supporting roles in Deadpool and X-Force team-ups. One of them has to be a solo movie.
Kitty Pryde
A big selling point for the X-Men comics is their strong female characters. There are more strong female characters who are integral to the plot and have their own storylines independent of the male characters in the X-Men universe than perhaps any other superhero comics sub-universe.
Possibly the strongest female character is Kitty Pryde. She’s appeared in a couple of the movies, played brilliantly by Ellen Page, and it would be great to get her back for a solo movie – possibly adapting one of Joss Whedon’s terrific Kitty Pryde storylines (hell, maybe the movie could even be written and directed by Whedon himself after his Batgirl movie fell through).
Cable
With Josh Brolin’s days as Thanos numbered as the Avengers: Endgame trailers focus on Earth’s mightiest heroes pledging to do “whatever it takes” to kill him, he can focus full-time on his other Marvel role: Cable.
In fact, according to Brolin himself, the time-traveling badass will have a four-movie arc in the franchise: “We think about it in four movie terms. We tried to think of Cable as a full arc, not just in [Deadpool 2], but in the trajectory of four films. That made it a lot more fun for me.” That arc will likely bring the character full circle.
X-23
Logan might have been the end of Hugh Jackman’s two-decade reign as Wolverine, but it also marked a new dawn in the X-Men franchise as he went out liberating a bunch of mutant children. This included Dafne Keen’s Laura, a.k.a. X-23, his long-lost cloned daughter. Given the ecstatic fan response to the character, it seems like a no-brainer to give her a solo movie, and one is in the works.
The only issue is the timeline, since she was a kid in Logan and that movie was set a few years into the future. Logan director James Mangold says a script is in the works and also pointed out that Wonder Woman’s success helped the X-23 movie’s chances of being made: “Patty [Jenkins]’s success with that film only solidifies more for studios that there’s less to fear with a female protagonist.”
