Patrick Stewart Once Called the First ‘X-Men’ Movie a Trailer for the Franchise
X-Men once recruited veteran actor Patrick Stewart to portray the powerful telepath Charles Xavier. And as successful as the original X-Men was, Stewart felt there were huge differences between X-Men and its sequel.
Patrick Stewart felt the ‘X-Men’ sequel’ was a giant leap from the first film
Professor X has become one of Stewart’s most popular roles, perhaps equally or more so than his role as Captain Picard in Star Trek. But it nearly didn’t happen, as Stewart initially turned down the role as the mutant leader. In his memoir Making It So: A Memoir, Stewart confided that producer Lauren Donner initially brought the comic book character to his attention. But Stewart had no idea what to make of him.
“This conversation made about as much sense to me as the one I’d had with Steve Dontanville all those years ago in which he asked me why Gene Roddenberry wanted to meet me. Charles Xavier? The X-Men? I hadn’t a bloody clue what was going on,” Stewart recalled.
Eventually, however, Stewart would get the gist of the character. But that actually seemed to discourage him even further from adopting the role.
“My thoughts at the time? No. No more fantasy. No more sci-fi. No more telepaths. No more actors zipped into formfitting costumes. I’m done with all that. Thanks for thinking of me, but — no, absolutely not,” he remembered saying.
But after meeting the film’s director Bryan Singer, Stewart was sold on the role. His praise for X-Men was only surpassed by his praise for its sequel X2, which he considered a considerable improvement over the original.
“I meant that it was a leap forward from the first movie, which I always felt was an expensive trailer,” Stewart once told BBC. “It was a film that was there to introduce the world of the X-Men, what their powers were, what the roles were. What is a triumph with this film is that it just goes straight into the story and we don’t have to do a lot of complicated background work.”
Patrick Stewart had this 1 huge criticism regarding Professor X in ‘X-Men
As much as Stewart might’ve enjoyed playing Professor X, he would’ve liked for his character to have more to do in the sequels. He felt Professor X could’ve been just as active as his younger co-stars were.
“In future ones, I’d like to be more Proactive. Professor Xavier is always reacting to something,” he said. “In both movies, I spend a big chunk of time out of action or being controlled by someone else. I thought Professor Xavier was the most powerful mutant in the world. I think I ought to have a really intense scene with [Rebecca Romijin-Stanos.]”
X2 did end up expanding his role slightly, while its sequel X-Men The Last Stand took an unexpected creative turn with Stewart’s character. But perhaps Professor X was the most active in his franchise in the 2017 feature Logan. The movie explored a different side to Stewart’s character as the mutant grappled with a neurological disorder which affected his powers.
Patrick Stewart thought he was done with Professor X after ‘Logan’
Stewart was so moved by both the experience and the results of Logan that he saw it as a beautiful send-off for Professor X. One he didn’t want to risk tarnishing with a potential return. He made this admission to co-star Hugh Jackman and director James Mangold personally when the three viewed a special screening of the film.
“Maybe it was the company of these two guys, but the movie ended and — this is an admission — but at one point [Hugh] reached out, and he took my hand in those last few minutes, and I saw him go [wipe a tear from his eye] like this, and then I realized I had just done the same thing,” Stewart once told Entertainment Weekly. “Then, the movie ended… and we were going to be taken up on stage, but not until the credits were over. So, we had some time to sit there and, as I sat there I realized there will never be a better, a more perfect, a more sensitive, emotional, and beautiful way of saying au revoir to Charles Xavier than this movie. So, I told [Hugh] that same evening, ‘I’m done too. It’s all over.’”
However, it seemed that Stewart would have a change of heart. He reprised his role briefly in the Marvel film Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
