Famke Janssen appeared five times as Jean Grey over the years in Fox’s X-Men movies – from 2000’s X-Men to 2014’s Days of Future Past – but the franchise is about to go in a whole new direction now that Marvel Studios has swallowed up the rights to mutantkind. If there’s an opportunity for her to come back again, though – like… a phoenix, you might say – Janssen would be up for it. But, most of all, she hopes Marvel continues to focus on the women of the X-Men.
While speaking to Observer to mark the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of the first X-Men film, the actress was asked if she would be up for a return as Jean. Janssen then flipped the question, saying that though she is open to the idea, the real issue is whether Marvel would want her or not.
I think the question is more if they would have any interest in bringing me back,” she saiid. “With Days of Future Past, there was a surprise way of reintroducing certain characters that had been killed off. In some people’s cases, it was to bring them back as well as the younger versions of their characters. I’d be curious to see what happens [with Marvel Films]. But, yes, I would be very open to it.”
More important to Janssen than getting another appearance in the franchise, however, is that Marvel spotlights the female members of the team in future films, building on the work she believes was already done in the Fox movies.
“The one thing that we can say for the X-Men is that there were a lot of women in our films. Strong, superhero women. I think diversity across the board would be amazing,” Janssen explains. “There’s no shortage in any of these X-Men of what you can do and what you can find in terms of diverse characters. I’m assuming that’s what they’ll do anyway, but that is where the work should be headed everywhere.”
It seems Janssen is right to assume Marvel are already planning on going down this path. There’s been a lot of talk that the studio may even rename the team to something more gender-neutral, following Mystique making a quip to this nature in Dark Phoenix. Producer Victoria Alonso has said that she would personally get rid of the X-Men term, too.
Either way, the key thing is that Marvel actually delivers some great female characters in the MCU version of the X-Men. As for whether Janssen could return, that may be less likely, given that the Phoenix probably needs to be rested on the big screen for a while.