I Need the MCU X-Men to Finally Deliver One Hero’s Villain Turn on the Big Screen (And Break Everyone’s Heart)
Avengers: Doomsday is rapidly approaching, and with it, the arrival of the X-Men in the MCU. Each new casting announcement sends fans and theorists into wild speculation about the direction of the X-Men reboot. After two distinct eras of X-Men movies and multiple branching timelines, future X-Men films run the risk of retreading old ground. The Dark Phoenix has already taken over Jean Grey’s mind twice in live action, and fans will be hard-pressed to get excited for that storyline a third time. The MCU reboot has given the X-Men a chance to try something fresh, and adapt entirely new stories the earlier films never could. If Marvel is looking for a storyline to adapt for the X-Men’s future, one with lasting payoff and high stakes, there is one beloved X-Men team member they need to bring to the big screen. In fact, Marvel has already laid the groundwork for this character’s return to the MCU, as well as their eventual betrayal.
Sadie Sink has already made her first appearance as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and recent X-Men casting announcements bode well for the future of mutants in the MCU. One character that’s at the top of the list for a comeback is Hank McCoy, Beast. The lovable blue furball has endeared himself to mainstream audiences, appearing in several movies and series, including the latest season of X-Men ’97. But none of those renditions have delved into the character’s darker side. As comics have shown, Beast is capable of great heroism and great evil. If Marvel wants to adapt a story for a new age of X-Men, they have to start with bringing Beast into the MCU.
The Real McCoy
Beast was a founding member of the X-Men, and his inclusion in the MCU’s mutant team is an absolute must. Most mainstream audiences are familiar with the character as the Shakespeare-quoting hairy blue scientist, and the films and cartoons have rarely dug deeper than that. Being a core X-Men member, he has the infinite love and trust of his fellow teammates. However, in the comics there is something much darker hidden deep in Hank McCoy’s psyche. His insecurity and self-loathing have always been there; it’s even what led to him turning himself blue in the first place. These insecurities have taken Beast down a dark path time and time again; when pushed to desperate means, Hank is all too ready to abandon the pretenses of ethical behavior for what he believes is the greater good.
For example, when the Legacy virus was ravaging the mutant population, Beast was desperate to find a cure to save his people. When he discovered a mutant girl who may be the key to saving the world, Beast was willing to turn her over to the twisted Mr. Sinister. Despite the villain’s shared goal of finding a cure, Beast was fully aware of the horrors he had allowed the girl to suffer at the hands of the evil geneticist. It’s this kind of moral compromise that will blindside the X-Men should they bring Beast into the fold.
“Oh My Stars and Garters!”
While Kelsey Grammer reprised his role as the furry blue scientist in The Marvels, we know that Marvel is recasting the X-Men for the MCU. The existence of Kelsey Grammer’s Beast actually slots in very well with how Marvel might reboot the franchise. In All New X-Men, Beast brings a time-displaced young X-Men team to the present to stage an intervention on their older selves. A wildly unethical move but one that Beast was willing to make for what he believed to be the greater good. The Beast we see at the end of The Marvels is presumably from the same universe as the rest of the original X-Men we’ve seen in the Avengers: Doomsday trailers.
Based on what we can glean from this early footage, the original X-Men are in dire straits and the implications of the reboot spell doom for them. Coupled with the fact that Jean Grey and Scott Summers have already been cast as their younger seIves, it seems almost obvious that Marvel is setting Beast up to do something similar to what he did in the comics, as morally questionable as it may be.
When discussing the dark roads Hank McCoy may find himself walking, it’s also important to mention Dark Beast, the alternate timeline Beast from the Age Of Apocalypse. This evil incarnation of the character escaped his reality to the mainline 616 universe of the comics. Eventually, he imprisoned the real Beast and took his place on the X-Men, unbeknownst to the rest of the team. With the multiversal conflict promised in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, there is ample opening for a Dark Beast to sneak into the MCU and stab our heroes in the back. Marvel certainly couldn’t ask for a better setup for such a devastating twist.
So far, Marvel has gone a very unexpected way with the mutants, introducing them in small pieces throughout the MCU, never giving too much away but always hinting at what’s to come. Deadpool and Wolverine made a joke of the entire concept, using the TVA as a metaphor for convoluted licensing deals that have kept the X-Men and the rest of Marvel separate. When the X-Men do finally make their triumphant return, there is a seemingly impossible burden their films will be carrying.
Meeting fan expectations while laying the groundwork for new storylines and a new future will not be easy. By introducing Beast and taking cues from his darker arcs, Marvel may be able to thread that line, giving us the classics we’ve been waiting for while telling an entirely new story within it.
The MCU X-Men reboot has a release date of May 5, 2028.
