The Matrix star Laurence Fishburne joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Dr. Bill Foster, aka Black Goliath/Giant-Man, in 2018's Ant-Man and The Wasp, but it ended up being the renowned actor's only live-action MCU appearance (he did voice the character in What If...?) despite rumors that he was set to reprise the role for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Though there's always a chance Foster will return in a future project, Quantumania's box office underperformance and critical reception means a fourth Ant-Man movie is unlikely to happen (at least not anytime soon), and something tells us Fishburne isn't exactly waiting by the phone, anyway.
Even so, it seems the actor would like the opportunity to return to the MCU... but as a completely different character.
During a Matrix reunion panel at New York Comic Con on Sunday, Fishburne threw his hat in the ring to play Professor Charles Xavier in Marvel Studios' long-awaited X-Men reboot.
“I know that they’re talking about the X-Men now. So, at this point, I want one of two things. The first thing would be: what do you think about Laurence Fishburne as Professor X?”
As for the second thing, Fishburne is open to suggestions: “I don’t know, I’m gonna let you guys decide. I can’t figure it out.”
However, when host Josh Horowitz suggested the idea of a Star Wars role, Fishburne made it clear that he wouldn't have much interest.
“No, I’m good,” he replied. “I’m watching everything. I’m watching every Star Wars, I’m in the middle of Rebels now, man. I’m good on the couch with Star Wars. I don’t need a lightsaber. I don’t — pew pew! — I don’t need it.”
Sir Patrick Stewart is set to return as Professor X in Avengers: Doomsday, but the character is expected to be recast, if not for the first MCU X-Men movie, then at some point during the Mutant Saga. We've already heard that the studio might be looking at Colman Domingo for the role, but reports indicate that casting only recently got underway.
How would you feel about Laurence Fishburne taking on the role of Charles Xavier? Drop us a comment down below.
Michael Lesslie is working on the X-Men script (we expect another writer to join him at some point), and Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier recently confirmed that he will helm the project.
"I can’t say anything about it, but we’ve started work on X-Men, and that’s obviously very, very exciting," Schreier revealed during a recent interview with Empire. "There are so many things that I didn’t know about before I started [Thunderbolts*]. The biggest learning curve for me was the proportion of the action to the more emotional, character-driven scenes, and how, even though it’s more shooting days than I’ve ever had, they get eaten up quite quickly by the action stuff. By the time we got to the end of it, it felt like, 'Oh, now I feel like we get how to do this a little bit better.'"
A recent rumor claimed that the movie is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2028.