Marvel Studios is set to relaunch the X-Men franchise within the MCU over the next few years, meaning fans should get ready to meet a recast roster of mutant heroes. Usual leader of the team Scott Summers will likely be among them, but what advice does veteran Cyclops actor James Marsden offer to the next person to don Cyke’s ruby quartz visor?
Well, actually, his advice has everything to do with the X-Man’s snazzy red-tinged headgear. In an interview with Collider to promote Sonic the Hedgehog, Marsden talked about how the biggest challenge of bringing Cyclops to life as an actor is building a three-dimensional character without the use of your eyes. Especially a straight-down-the-line character like Scott.
“The biggest challenge was that, the audience and other actors never being able to see your eyes. Definitely was a handicap in bringing a persona to the character, and an energy to the character. To a character who is also very, by nature, very by-the-books. Kind of a Boy Scout, ‘do the right thing.’ He’s a foil to Wolverine’s character, who is more fly by the seat of his pants, a little more unpredictable, and aggressive.”
When facing this challenge, Marsden urged whoever’s the next Cyclops to tackle the character however they see fit – and to not necessarily prescribe to the comic books in doing so.
“I would just say lean into it. Own it. And carve out your own thing. The fans of the books are going to tell you ‘it needs to be this’. Find a new way to make it interesting. Because it is tough to like get something interesting and cool and different across when no one ever sees your eyes. Which is obviously, you know, the main part of the character.”
Marsden played Scott four times across Fox’s X-Men universe – in the original trilogy and then for a cameo in X-Men: Days of Future Past. His successor was Tye Sheridan, who appeared as the younger Cyclops in X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, as well as a silent cameo in Deadpool 2. It’s likely Marvel will hire an actor somewhere between Sheridan and Marsden’s ages to play their version, but who they may be eyeing, we don’t yet know.
Tell us, though, who would you like to see portray Cyclops in the MCU’s X-Men reboot? Sound off with your thoughts in the usual place.