Currently, there are only two Marvel characters that can be used by both Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox on the big screen: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The latter’s the only one who’s appeared in both franchises, with Evan Peters playing him in the X-Men moves, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson playing him in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Unfortunately for Taylor-Johnson’s version, he was killed in battle, and Peters was disappointed to see him go due to the lost potential.
Evans expressed his “devastation” about MCU Quicksilver’s death go in an interview with Yahoo!, saying how he wanted to see the character keep going and didn’t understand why they killed him off. The actor continued:
I liked what they did with it. It was different. It was a completely different take on it. He had the Russian accent. I mean, they had this swoopy thing with the lines behind, which I thought was really cool, and I don’t know. I thought it was a cool character.
As Evan Peters alluded to, the speed effects for both Quicksilvers were quite different from each other, with Peters’ using the normal ‘whooshing’ usually seen in live action, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson used a swoopy line effect, making it look like his speed was leaving trails. That, along with their differing personalities (Peters’ being more comical and Taylor-Johnson’s being more serious and determined). Despite being one of the new heroes introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, the MCU’s Quicksilver died after saving Hawkeye and a young boy from being hit by bullets, and there are currently no plans to bring him back to life. Peters’ Quicksilver debuted in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, and he’s returning later this month in X-Men: Apocalypse to help the X-Men battle Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen.
Peters later stated that had the MCU’s Quicksilver stayed alive, he believes that would have provided some incentive for the two franchises to push each other to creatively improve. He said:
I thought it could have been a cool competition. Like, ‘Oh, they did that with him and that was awesome. Now we’ve got to try to top that with this.’ It could have been a nice little, I don’t know, motivation.
While it definitely would have been nice to see how MCU Quicksilver could have fit into Phase Three, alas it was not to be. Had there ever been an opportunity to cross over the MCU and X-Men movie universe, it also would have been cool to see the Quicksilvers race each other. Who do you think would have won that?
Evan Peters’ Quicksilver will return when X-Men: Apocalypse hits theaters on May 27. Meanwhile, you can follow the current exploits of MCU Quicksilver’s sister, Scarlet Witch, in Captain America: Civil War.
