James McAvoy first played Professor Charles Xavier in 2011's X-Men: First Class, with his final appearance as the leader of the X-Men coming eight years later in Dark Phoenix. The actor certainly had a memorable run as the iconic comic book character, but could he one day return?
Anything is possible (especially with a Multiverse), but it seems likely Marvel Studios will recast Charles Xavier when the X-Men are eventually rebooted for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There have been lots of rumblings about Sir Patrick Stewart potentially reprising the role, and given Kevin Feige's history with the X-Men franchise, that arguably makes more sense.
Either way, during a recent interview with Collider, McAvoy was asked if he feels like he's done with the character and hinted that Charles is a role he's happy to move on from now.
"I feel like, yeah. I feel like I got to explore, not everything I wanted to explore, because there's always more, surely, but I got to explore a ton of Professor X, and I feel quite satisfied with what I got out of him as a performer," the actor admitted. "It's not to say that you don't ever want to, you never want to come back, and you never want to do it again, and all that kind of stuff."
"You never say never, as I believe James Bond once said. But I'm not chomping at the bit. I'm not going to be gutted and desperately sad if it never happens again."
We saw a lot of great casting choices in Fox's X-Men Universe, and many fans wouldn't be upset to see at least some of them return (Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, for example). Ryan Reynolds will be back as Deadpool, so it's certainly not completely out of the question. However, Dark Phoenix was so bad, no one could blame Feige and company for starting totally from scratch.
Do you think McAvoy should be brought back to play the MCU's Professor X?