The MCU’s X-Men Reboot Can Finally Fix The Villain Fox’s Franchise Botched Twice

Marvel Studios’ upcoming X-Men reboot in the MCU can solve many problems with 20th Century Fox’s previous franchise, including redeeming one powerful mutant villain, who was failed twice in Fox’s previous live-action X-Men projects. Shortly after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox was finalized in 2019, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige confirmed that mutants would be joining the MCU. Fox’s X-Men franchise introduced many mutant heroes and villains into live-action for the first time, but the two-decade-long franchise had many problems that made some of these debuts disappointing. Marvel Studios’ upcoming X-Men reboot has the perfect opportunity to solve these issues.

While 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine is set to reintroduce characters from Fox’s X-Men franchise, including Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s titular heroes, Marvel Studios is also working on an honest-to-goodness X-Men reboot for the MCU. Not much is yet known about this highly-anticipated project, but many iconic X-Men heroes and villains are expected to be reinvented for the MCU, perhaps bringing more comic-accurate depictions of these characters into live-action. 20th Century Fox failed many X-Men-related characters, most notably the likes of Cyclops, Storm, Rogue and Jean Grey, but one notable Marvel Comics villain could also see justice in the MCU.

X-Men Movies Have Gotten Mystique Wrong Twice

While the focus of Fox’s X-Men franchise was always on the X-Men team itself, mutant antagonists also played a key role in the franchise’s development. Perhaps most notably, Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants posed a significant threat to the X-Men team and, indeed, to all of humanity, but Magneto’s right-hand-woman, Mystique, became one of the franchise’s most failed characters. 20th Century Fox’s original and revised X-Men timelines delivered two wildly different portrayals of Mystique, played by Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence, respectively, but neither managed to capture what makes the shape-shifting villain such a fantastic antagonist in Marvel Comics.

In Fox’s original X-Men trilogy, Mystique was nothing more than a minion of Magneto, as she was often used as a pawn to infiltrate places nobody else could access while disguised as various characters. Conversely, in the revised X-Men timeline that was established after 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mystique became a hero and an X-Man in her own right. While she does eventually become a tentative member of the X-Men in Marvel Comics, Mystique is much more effective as an independent villain, and even as a leader of her own, brutal Brotherhood of Mutants, which Fox never demonstrated.

How The MCU’s X-Men Reboot Can Fix Mystique

When rebooting the X-Men for the MCU, Marvel Studios has the perfect opportunity to reinvent Mystique, and make her an even more powerful and formidable foe. By separating Mystique from other villains like Magneto, Marvel Studios can showcase more of her independence, perhaps even establishing her own Brotherhood of Mutants, and making her a much more imposing threat to the MCU’s X-Men team. Marvel Studios could also more clearly define Mystique’s relationship to other heroes, including Nightcrawler and Rogue, which was all but ignored in Fox’s franchise, making her a more comic-accurate and complex antagonist in the MCU’s X-Men storylines.

Marvel’s X-Men

Marvel’s X-Men is the tentative title for the future debut of the legendary Marvel mutant superhero team in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.