X-Men fans might actually fall over in shock upon hearing that Patrick Stewart doesn’t want to play the role of Charles Xavier again, but hopefully before they pass out they would be up for listening to why. The actor has been playing the role of the mentor and leader of the X-Men for years now and several movies have seen him do questionable to noble things in order to keep his people safe and to unfortunately bottle up a presence that he felt was too dangerous to be allowed its freedom in X-Men: Last Stand. The character has never been entirely perfect, not even in the comic books, but Professor X has been loved all the same by fans since he’s a powerful mutant and supposed moral center of the team which is kind of hard to believe given the acts he’s committed between the comics and the movies. He does have the ability to be a great and very astute leader but there have been times when Charles has chosen the practical route over the right one and it’s come back to bite him and his team in the backside since for someone that appears so wise at times he’s still capable of a shortcoming or two given that despite being able to read minds he’s not always as capable of focusing his attention where it really needs to be.
But the reluctance of Stewart to pick up the role again comes from the fact that during the movie Logan his character was killed off by X-24 as Patrick Phillips of Looper reminds us. Stewart sees this movie as a means of both Xavier and Logan finally being laid to rest after long and eventful lives in which both men have suffered a great deal and have done things that they’re not proud of but have at least attempted to make life better for those around them. During the movie it was seen that Professor X had begun to slip and had unfortunately become highly prone to seizures that, thanks to the power of his mind, could wreak an enormous amount of havoc on those around him, going so far as to kill anyone within the unseen blast radius that his mind projected when such a moment hit. Logan thankfully was able to at least resist the unrelenting psychic barrage just enough thanks in part to the same adamantium skeleton that had been poisoning him for so long and in part because he’s just that tough and his healing factor likely played a part as well. In any case, he was the one individual that could withstand Charles’ seizures long enough to dose him with a remedy that would end the seizures and bring Charles back to lucidity for a while. In short, the movie was about the two former X-Men getting older and more infirm as the years passed by in a world where the X-Men were dead and gone and the world of heroes was no longer the same.
But Stewart’s unwillingness to return to the character is largely due to the fact that he believes that this was a way for him and Jackman to say goodbye to their characters for good and all, and it’s not likely that he wants to revisit the mantle of Charles Xavier since it was a fitting ending finally for two very notable characters. Of course plenty of people are now claiming that he might come back if there was a good enough story to tell and if he was enticed just enough, but maybe it’s time to finally let some characters pass on. In the world of comics death is never a certainty as we’ve seen since people can’t bear to lose their heroes and in return the writers will find some way, no matter how inane or convoluted it is, to bring back the favored characters and explain how it happened using movie and comic book magic that will appease the fans and make the death inconsequential since the character is back and all is right with the world. If you feel the need to sigh like I do take your time and get it out, because this is the point when pandering to the fans becomes overkill in a very big way. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not saying Rian Johnson is right in any way when it comes to catering to fans, but there is a point and time when acceding to their wishes is just too much and ends up ruining a story that’s already been told. Matt Donato of Slashfilm might actually back me up on this, I hope.
The need to bring comfort to the fans has resulted in bringing many a hero and even villains back and it’s become overkill as of, oh, decades ago. Much as I hate to admit it, there is a time when we need to move on from the old heroes and villains, and it would appear that Patrick Stewart is trying to do just that.
Follow Us
