Can you believe it? We are approaching the end of an era for Marvel movies. First it will be “endgame” for quite a few of the OG Avengers with the highly-anticipated MCU flick hits theaters later this month. For the X-Men, Dark Phoenix will close out the longtime Fox franchise that started almost twenty years ago with the Disney/Fox merger now finalized, and Disney laying out plans to bring the mutants to the MCU.
Fox’s X-Men franchise has certainly seen a lot of highs and lows, switch-ups and time jumps on the big screen. James Marsden played Cyclops in the first trilogy and made an appearance in Days of Future Past before Tye Sheridan took over as a younger iteration of the role for 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Marsden has now told ComicBook.com that he would don those red-tinted sunglasses all over again if given the opportunity. Here's what he said:
Sure, I'd be down. I think that world, there just are no rules. You can do whatever you want. If there's some iteration down the line where we're involved...that's been a special thing to be a part of for a good period of my life and I love those fans and I love playing that character so, yeah, I'd be totally open to that.
The actor doesn’t seem to need much convincing to join the massive MCU, and we don’t blame him – there’s some seriously amazing things coming up for the Marvel franchise. It would be interesting to see Disney carve out a place for the actor in the future as his iconic role of Cyclops, as long as we don’t have to witness anything close to The Last Stand, which left a bad taste in the mouths of many for some odd years.
However, it does look like Disney’s take on the X-Men may try to differentiate themselves from what’s been established in the past 20 years, and reboot these characters in a new and refreshing way. So bringing back an original character from Fox’s X-Men movies just doesn’t sound like it’d likely be on the table. James Marsden could certainly be a great fit for another comic book character out there in the X-Men universe, and if he’s chosen for it, this would allow the actor to bring something new to the franchise-- while his presence would also be a nice nod to its roots.
Not every member of the X-Men family has shown the adamant interest James Marsden recently has about joining the MCU. Alexandra Shipp, who will soon reprise the role of Storm in Dark Phoenix said she was against it because her character already doesn’t have many lines already. James McAvoy also recently admitted the strength in numbers with the Avengers, plus the mutants just may not well work together.
James Marsden's schedule does look quite stacked between Westworld, his upcoming Netflix series Dead To Me and the Enchanted sequel in the works, but we know he's down! Would you like to see James Marsden reprise his Cyclops role or perhaps take on another comic book role in the MCU? Feel free to leave your thoughts below.
