The MCU’s X-Men cast was officially announced recently at D23. After Sadie Sink appeared as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Samara Weaving (Emma Frost), Kit Connor (Cyclops), Adam Driver (Mister Sinister), Christopher Abbot (Professor X), and Inde Navarrette (Rogue) were announced for the film.
It brought up plenty of questions as well as answers, but chief among them was: Where’s Magneto? If Charles Xavier is in the movie and the larger MCU, then it makes sense that his close friend and frequent adversary would be, too. But where is he?
Well, according to a new rumor, Magneto is going to be in the movie in some capacity, although it will likely be a smaller appearance since Mister Sinister is the big bad. Three actors are allegedly being considered. But regardless of all of that, there’s one big issue with Magneto in the MCU.
Magneto Likely In the MCU, But There’s a Problem
A rumor is circulating on social media that Magneto is going to appear in some capacity in the upcoming X-Men reboot for the MCU, currently slated for release in 2028. The rumor is being attributed to Deadline, but there is no official report that Lee Pace, Henry Cavill, or Matt Smith are up for the role.
Regardless, Magneto is highly likely to become an MCU character at some point. He’s far too important to the X-Men, who seem to be the focus of the next phase post-Secret Wars, to be excluded entirely. Whether this is a reliable report or more internet speculation is irrelevant; Magneto will arrive at some point.
That brings up a huge problem, though. Famously, Erik Lensherr is a Holocaust survivor. Torture during the Holocaust is how he unearthed and maximized his powers, and it is perhaps the most important part of his characterization. It’s why he’s opposed to Charles Xavier’s methods, and it’s why he doesn’t like non-mutants.
In the MCU, thanks to Captain America: The First Avenger, World War II happens canonically in the 1940s. There’s no weird timeline going on there. We don’t know exactly when the X-Men movie will be set, but we can assume it’s in the present-day MCU, which is set in the late 2020s and early 2030s (with Jean Grey’s inclusion, we know that X-Men won’t be set in the past or in an alternate universe like The Fantastic Four: First Steps).
That would make Magneto at least 90 years old to have experienced the Holocaust and be in the current MCU. There are a host of problems with that. Obviously, the new era of X-Men is younger, with even Charles Xavier being played by 40-year-old Christopher Abbott.
There are some solutions, but none of them are quite as straightforward. The first solution is to say that because of Magneto’s powers, or perhaps the torture he endured, he ages slowly. So while his body is in its 90s, he’s still a 40-year-old. The MCU used this for both Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers.
But if Charles Xavier, Erik Lensherr’s counterpart, is a regular 40-year-old or thereabouts, their stories don’t align. Yes, they’d be the same physically, but they would not have the same crucial relationship they do in the comics and other adaptations.
Plus, what on earth has he been doing all this time? If he’s been around since the ’40s, why hasn’t he shown up? There are ways to write around that, but it risks getting convoluted, and as mentioned, there are some holes in this solution anyway, namely with his relationship to the existing X-Men.
The second option is to rewrite his origin and have it more closely tied to a recent civil rights issue. Instead of the Holocaust, he could be connected to a tragedy in the 1990s, for example. This is probably the best solution, but it is not without its flaws, either. Being Jewish is a staple of the character, and changing that risks cheapening the character or removing some of his bite.
There appears to be no perfect, ideal path forward. Whenever Magneto does show up, whether it’s in X-Men or a future film (and he will show up), the writers tasked with introducing him certainly have their work cut out for them. And with the MCU kind of hanging in the balance, getting this right is very important.
