The MCU X-Men: The 3 Mutant Heroes Marvel Studios Should Not Recast
The Marvel Cinematic Universe will probably bring audiences very different versions of the mutant characters they know and love. But by and large, the MCU X-Men will offer a fresh start unburdened by past movies.
However, Marvel Studios shouldn’t be so eager to clean house that it abandons everything that worked in the Fox movie series. For example, here are a few X-Men heroes that should not be recast in the MCU.
Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool already likely to return in the MCU X-Men
The most obvious holdover from the X-Men’s Fox days is Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. Although the MCU is still apparently sorting out the details, fans expect Reynolds to stick around for the foreseeable future. Deadpool is so easy to shift over to the MCU X-Men for a couple of reasons.
Since he interacts with few other major heroes, Marvel can just pluck him right from his own little corner of Fox’s X-Men. Besides, the character’s massive fan base makes leaving him out a poor business decision. Each of the two Deadpool solo movies made roughly $780 million worldwide.
But the cleanest reason Deadpool should carry over is how just easy his transition to a whole new shared universe can be. After all, the character is completely self-aware. So just have Reynolds comment on his new surroundings in his first appearance, and he’s good to go.
Evan Peters could return as Quicksilver on ‘WandaVision’
In the comics, Quicksilver is both a member of the X-Men and an Avenger. As such, he is one of the only characters whose ownership was somewhat unclear. In its initial deal with Marvel, Fox secured movie rights to the company’s mutant characters.
But even after Evan Peters debuted as the character in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the MCU was able to bring in its own version. Avengers: Age of Ultron killed off Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s version as quickly as it introduced him. Now a new report claims Peters himself will join the MCU.
The actor’s rumored appearance would be in WandaVision, which stars Elizabeth Olsen as Quicksilver’s sister Scarlet Witch. Since fans expect the Disney+ series to deal with the multiverse, Peters could be bringing his fan-favorite character from Fox directly into the MCU X-Men. Let’s hope so.
Fans won’t get Hugh Jackman, but Dafne Keen’s X-23 needs to stay
Hugh Jackman has said time and again that he won’t be playing Wolverine in the MCU. And after nearly two decades in the role, the actor has earned a chance to retire from the X-Men series. That being said, the Fox movies did introduce the perfect claw-wielding successor for the MCU X-Men.
In Logan, Wolverine discovers that his blood was used for experimentation, ultimately resulting in a clone/daughter named Laura Kinney (Dafne Keen). In the comics, the character becomes the Wolverine-esque hero X-23 and eventually takes on the Wolverine name herself.
By the end of Logan, Laura seems — like Wolverine himself — ready to set aside her violent ways in favor of a hero’s life. So the MCU could easily bring her in without carrying over Logan’s intense bloody violence. Perhaps X-23 can hitch a dimension-hopping ride with Quicksilver into the MCU.