When 20th Century Fox decided to reboot the X-Men franchise with a set of movies meant to serve as prequels to the original trilogy, James McAvoy was chosen to take over the role of Professor X from Sir Patrick Stewart.
With Cassandra Nova (Charles Xavier's twin sister) serving as Deadpool & Wolverine's villain, many fans had speculated that a Variant of the Professor could appear in some capacity, particularly as trailers showed her using Chuck's wheelchair.
While the X-Men leader was referenced, he never appeared in the threequel and McAvoy confirmed at Comic-Con he wasn't asked.
"I knew I was going to be in the credits. I demanded. [Laughs] No," he said of that emotional tribute to 20th Century Fox's Marvel movies. As for that possible Professor X cameo, McAvoy added, "No, no, no, no. Not this one. I don’t think so. If there was a world, they clearly threw that idea out the window before calling me, so no."
That doesn't mean he's closed the door on playing Charles again, though.
"I’ve always said, if there’s a good role, if there’s a good opportunity to tell a good story, I’m always going to be interested in it, no matter whether it’s something I’ve done before or something completely brand new," McAvoy noted. "If there’s good material, I’m always ready to respond. I’m always ready. Ever ready! Actor ready! It’s got to be good, and they’ve got to want to do that, so it’s all hypotheticals."
Despite not being featured in Deadpool & Wolverine, McAvoy and several other prequel series cast members did appear in Deadpool 2 (albeit courtesy of footage shot during production on Dark Phoenix).
Interestingly, Stewart dropped some hints about being asked to return as Professor X for the R-Rated threequel earlier this year. That also didn't happen.
"It has come up, there’s been a process," the iconic actor said of potentially reuniting with Hugh Jackman in Deadpool & Wolverine. "The last two to three years have been so difficult with the labor problems and the health problems, COVID, you know."
We're not sure why it didn't pan out, but chances are one or both X-Men actors will return elsewhere in the Multiverse Saga...