Kit Connor, Marvel Studios' new Cyclops actor, is about to be fitted for a costume that could end a 26-year-old streak. The end of the Multiverse Saga is closing in, with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars set to bring an end to the most uneven era in MCU history. But Kevin Feige and Co. aren't heading into Phase 7 and beyond without a plan. Quite the opposite, in fact, as they're gearing up to kick off a new saga, one all about mutants.
Rather than doubling down and beginning the Mutant Saga with a bunch of solo movies that lead into an event film, Marvel Studios is coming out of the gates swinging. Thunderbolts* director Jake Schreier is hard at work on an X-Men movie that will feature an entirely different cast of actors than its predecessors.
Casting rumors have been bouncing around the internet for months, with seemingly every working actor and their mother being connected to the project at one point or another. However, the truth is finally cutting through the fiction. The Hollywood trades announced that Samara Weaving beat out the competition to land the highly coveted Emma Frost role in X-Men. Then came the news that Kit Connor was Marvel Studios' choice for Scott Summers, aka Cyclops.
No X-Men film is complete without Cyclops. He's the leader of the team and, more often than not, its moral compass. Of course, it's hard to blame fans who don't view Cyclops as the X-Men's Captain America because the movies he's appeared in thus far haven't done him any favors. The problem that Cyclops has run into time and time again on the big screen is that he's been unable to stand out in a crowd. Connor's iteration can nip this disappointing streak in the bud by having a unique costume from the jump, something that tells the audience that he's worthy of the spotlight.
All the way back in 2000, the first X-Men movie hit theaters. Cyclops was front and center, helping his mentor, Professor X, battle Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But Cyclops, like the film he was in, wasn't interested in stepping out of his comfort zone. He had no problem donning a black leather costume and scoffed at Wolverine when he suggested they wear something else.
Cyclops failed to shed his rough exterior when his franchise underwent a soft reboot. In X-Men: Apocalypse, Scott and his mutant friends threw on black flight suits when they went into battle against the titular villain. Sure, by the end of the movie, he had a comic-accurate costume. However, that look failed to return in Dark Phoenix, being replaced by a colorful yet generic yellow-and-blue number.
Keeping Cyclops Out of Wolverine's Shadow Will Help Him As Much As Any Costume
It's fair to say that fans are fired up about James Marsden's role in Avengers: Doomsday. The big draw of his return as Cyclops is that he's finally getting to wear a comic-accurate costume after all these years. What's just as enticing as what he picks out of his closet, though, is that he's not going to have a 150-year-old Canadian breathing down his neck every time he speaks.
Wolverine never cut Cyclops any slack in Fox's X-Men movie, undermining his authority and going after his girl at every oppurtunity. Things got so bad that X-Men: The Last Stand decided to end the rivalry entirely, killing off Cyclops and having Wolverine deliver the finishing blow on Jean Grey.
Even when Cyclops caught his second wind in Apocalypse, he still couldn't escape Wolverine. The younger X-Men found themselves at a Weapon X facility, where they freed Wolverine, allowing him to go on a rampage. However, before he ran into the wilderness, Logan shot Jean a longing look, teasing their connection that would form later in life.
Marvel Studios should have no interest in hitting those story beats again. The ideal scenario for Connor's Cyclops is if Wolverine isn't part of the X-Men movie at all. That way, he can build a relationship with Jean and come into his own as a leader without having competition.
If the powers that be just can't imagine an X-Men movie without the adamantium-dependent hero, the least they can do is keep him far away from everyone else, at least at first. Logan is a loner, after all. And while he's sure to warm up to his roommates eventually, he doesn't have to do it right out of the gate.
Wolverine isn't a character that needs much of a runway to get going. Cyclops, on the other hand, needs all the help he can get. Marvel Studios would be wise to provide it to him, especially if it wants the Mutant Saga to thrive.
