So it looks as though Disney may be introducing its own take on the X-Men in their MCU, now that they've acquired the characters from FOX. Whether they decide to include only a smattering of characters as part of their other properties, or recreate the entire team is unclear at this point, though there seems to be a consensus that they won't do anything serious for about 7-10 years or so. With that in mind, my wife and I, both of us X-Men fans decided to try to assemble a list of actors and actresses that we knew of who, in 7-10 years, might be the right age and a good fit for the roles. You may see some common themes in the sources of these actors, based on what we're exposed to. Since our daughter is a fan of the Disney kids TV series, you will find many have been taken from their ranks. Also, Disney is already familiar with them so they've been vetted.
Lets start with Professor "X" himself. Many will say, my wife included, that no-one (not even James McAvery) can match Patrick Stewart in that role, but I don't think he'd be a good choice if Disney is trying to set itself apart from the previous Fox incarnation. My wife says that whoever it is, needs to have the same intellectual presence of Stewart, and should be British as well. Running through my mental list, I came up with
Ioan Gruffudd, star of the first pair of Fantastic 4 films. My wife was previously familiar with his work from the Horatio Hornblower movies (she likes tall ships), so he's already got an IN in her book. He's nearly 46 now, so he'd be about the right age within the 7-10 year timspsan. Granted, he's not bald, but they could CGI that if they needed, just look at what they did to Henry Cavill's beard.
Next we'll cross the aisle and go for Magneto. You need someone who can play both the villain and the hero in equal measure, and in keeping with British-actors-make-good-intellectual-authority-figures rationale, I thought that perhaps
Tom Ellis of the now-on-Netflix show Lucifer might be a good choice. He's about 5 years younger than Gruffudd, but the two are supposed to be roughly the same age. Another possibly different take on the character involves the fact that Magneto is born of conflict. For the previous movies they had Magneto be of Jewish descent, having lived through the WWII Holocaust. With Magneto having been born in the late 70's, perhaps have him live through the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war. After Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Kuwait, the terms of the ending of hostilities allowed him to use his remaining forces to put down a Kurdish Uprising in the North. If Magneto was from this area his powers could have been unleashed when Saddam came a knockin'. Also, the Kurdish uprising was spurred on by indications that the CIA would support such an uprising, but there was no support. This could go towards Magneto's distrust of those who purport to be "the good guys". Granted, I can't say for certain if Ellis can pull off playing Kurdish.
Moving on, but staying on the same side of the aisle, we'll do Saber-tooth. You need someone with presence and height. Previous portrayals have included a Pro Wrestler (
Tyler Mane), and
Liev Schreiber, both of whom are over 6 ft. tall. Then it occurred to me that perhaps they should keep things within the family... so to speak. Go with the brother of Thor himself,
Liam Hemsworth, currently 28, who is also 6'3".
Switching to the opposite side of the aisle again, we'll go with Wolverine. There has been much speculation that
Taron Egerton, of Kingsman fame, would be a good choice. Rather than follow the crowd, I thought that perhaps I'd chose someone with a connection to one of the other actors I've suggested,
Jush Hutcherson, who like Hemsworth, was a star of the Hunger Games films. He's currently coming up on 27 (about 3 years younger than Egerton), and unlike the previous
Hugh Jackman, who played an abnormally tall Wolverine (who is supposed to be short and stocky), is 5'7" (Egerton is 5'9") might more closely match the character's intended stature.
BTW, in-case you missed it, my wife is also a Hunger Games fan.
Crossing back to the traditional bad guys, we'll go with Mystique. I had made a few suggestions to my wife for her, but she reminded me that both recent incarnations of the character have been portrayed as very physical roles, rather than just doing disguises as her thing, and people seem to have come to expect that of the character now. In keeping with that, she suggested
Dove Cameron. I was reluctant to suggest her, since she already has had a role in a Marvel production, as the character Ruby during the second half of Season 5 of Agents of SHEILD, and that could make her ineligible. That aside, she already showed in that role that she could handle the physical aspects of Mystique, and is already on Disney's payroll.
Next we'll cross back with Jean Grey. When
Famke Janssen portrayed her in the first film, she was in her mid 30's. With that in mind, I've suggested
Sofia Carson (needing a change in hair color though), currently starring in Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, who is now 26.
Since I'm running out of bad characters, we'll go with an ambiguous character, Emma Frost. In keeping with Disney actresses, I've suggested
Peyton List, who is currently 21, and certainly has the complexion for it.
Finally (for now), we'll return to the X-Men with Rogue. At my wife's suggestion,
Willow Shields, also of Hunger Games fame, would be a good match, as long as she could get the accent down proper. Keep in mind, that this would be a more age-appropriate Rogue, unlike Anna Paquin was portraying a young teenager in the first movie, as Sheilds is currently 19 but would be in her mid to late 20's in the anticipated time-frame.
That's all I can come up with for now. Feel free to include your own suggestions or make comments (constructive criticism).
