The X-Men are some of Marvel's most popular comic book characters. So why is it Wolverine is the only one who's gotten the solo film treatment? Apocalypse director Bryan Singer thinks he knows just who should get a standalone X-Men film next.
Speaking on the Empire Podcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), Singer thinks Mystique should get her own film. Rebecca Romijn portrayed the character in X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men: First Class while Jennifer Lawrence played her in X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the most recent franchise installment X-Men: Apocalypse. But Singer is mostly focused on the character saying:
I think [Mystique”s] right for [a standalone], whether it”s Jennifer [Lawrence] or not. She has this different view of the world. Xavier can get into Cerebro and look at the world but he”d rather just teach classes and see the beauty of mutants and humans co-existing in his mansion in Westchester. Along comes Raven with a reality check on the state of the world. It opens up a lot of avenues.
Honestly, considering Lawrence's star power and general popularity, I'm surprised a Mystique solo film hasn't happened sooner (though that may be the actor's reluctance). The character certainly has a wealth of comic book lore to pull from. As THR writes:
Traditionally, the comic book version of the character has been an outright villain, recurring in multiple X-Men-related series including Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine and X-Factor with complicated relationships with many of the core mutant heroes. (She has been romantically linked to both Professor Xavier and Wolverine in the comics, and was eventually revealed to be the mother of Nightcrawler as well as the adoptive mother of Rogue.)
Though they also note Mystique normally works best when surrounded by other characters. So basically an X-Men film. Then again, the solo Wolverine films surrounded Hugh Jackman with other mutants too (same if you count Deadpool). I still think there's lots of potential not just with her story but to bring in other X-Men characters we have yet to see on screen (or those obscenely underutilized *cough*Jubilee*cough*).
What do you think? Personally, the Mystique we've gotten in the last few X-Men films isn't quite how I've ever seen the character. I'd love it if a solo film happened but took her in a new direction, perhaps completely separate from the current franchise.