Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Has Talked With Patrick Stewart About Charles Xavier
Now that Marvel Studios owns the right to the X-Men again, we know that one day these mutant characters will be introduced into the MCU. We don’t really know how that is going to all work or what characters will be introduced, but the creative minds at the studio are in the process of figuring it out.
During a recent interview with Digital Spy, Patrick Stewart revealed that he recently met with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and the reason for that meeting was to discuss his X-Men character, Charles Xavier. He said:
"I met with Kevin Feige a couple of months ago and we had long, long conversations. And there have been moves and suggestions, which include Charles Xavier."
Before you get too excited about Stewart coming back to reprise the role, he explains that it’s not going to happen:
"Here's the problem... If we had not made Logan, then yes, I would probably be ready to get into that wheelchair one more time and be Charles Xavier. But Logan changed all that.”
I’m sure that Feige met with Stewart as a courtesy to allow him to be a part of the conversation of what comes next for Xavier as Marvel moves forward with their future plans. The actor went on to talk about the first time he watched Logan in public:
"Here's a tiny anecdote. The first time that Hugh [Jackman] and I saw the film in public was at the Berlin Film Festival, which is where the movie premiered. Shortly after Xavier's death scene, I found myself getting very emotional but I had to keep a hold of myself because we were sitting in the middle of this cinema. And then I saw Hugh's hand come up to his eye and wipe away a tear. I thought, 'Dammit, the bugger's crying. Oh, let it out, Patrick.'"
He added:
"Hugh took my hand, and we held hands with the last seven or eight minutes of the film because there was so many things we were upset about. We were moved by the story. We were moved by one another. We were moved by the movie. But we also both made the decision that we were saying goodbye to our characters as well. In that sense, it was not just the deaths of those two men in the franchise, but it was also goodbye to our part in them as well."
Logan brought a perfect end to these two characters, so at this point, it makes sense to never see Stewart in the role of Xavier again. However, it will be interesting to see how Marvel ends up handling these X-Men characters in their future films.