Magneto Reportedly Not MCU ‘X-Men’ Villain as Marvel Scrambles To Replace Kang

One of the most highly-anticipated Marvel releases in recent years is the upcoming Deadpool 3, which is now expected to release in June 2024, after several delays and production issues. With the release of the third Deadpool film, it’s expected to serve as the official introduction of the X-Men (and the Fantastic Four) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). However, one popular X-Men may not be the focus of the upcoming X-Men project, according to an industry source.

Several X-Men characters have already appeared in recent films, including Professor X/Charles Xavier (Sir Patrick Stewart) in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) and most recently The Marvels (2023) had a post-credits scene that cameoed Beast/Hank McCoy (Kelsey Grammer). However, Deadpool 3 will serve as the introduction for the rest of the X-Men as the franchise is now officially owned by Disney and Marvel.

With the X-Men now officially Marvel Studios’ property, they’ll be joining the MCU with their own feature film in the next few years. In the previous live-action X-Men movies, Magneto was the primary villain in both the original franchise as well as the X-Men: First Class (2011) rebooted trilogy. Originally, Erik Lensherr/Magneto was played by the iconic Sir Ian McKellan. In the rebooted films Michael Fassbender took up the helmet. However, it seems as though Marvel may be taking their X-Men films in a different direction.

According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, aka @DanielRPK on X/Twitter, the upcoming MCU X-Men project is looking at Mister Sinister as the main villain, not Magneto. In the comics, Mister Sinister (aka Nathaniel Essex) is a scientist who becomes obsessed with turning humanity into a perfect race of superhumans. He joins with another villain, Apocalypse, and is able to give himself superpowers and the ability to never age. He eventually becomes a villain of the X-Men due to his obsession with Cyclops and Jean Grey, thinking that their DNA holds the key to creating the ultimate mutant. He’s able to clone himself and regenerate, essentially making him impossible to kill.

With those powers, he would make an intriguing MCU villain, because there are so many avenues that could be explored with him as the antagonist. We’ve seen similar characters do well, like Loki and his ability to constantly cheat death, and if done right, Mister Sinister could be the next Thanos-level threat now that Marvel may be dropping Kang the Conqueror after it was revealed they’ve parted ways with Jonathan Majors. It was previously rumored that Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four was being eyed as the replacement for Kang, but Mister Sinister could take the role just as well.

Who do you think Marvel should use as their main X-Men villain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

This post is originally appeared on Inside the Magic.