Fans have waited nearly two decades for X-Men to take over the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed that the X-Men will be recast and enter this fictional universe after it gets a post-Avengers: Secret Wars reboot. This leaves an obvious question for fans: which of these uncanny characters should we see in the first X-Men film?
There are some obvious choices that are likely to appear, like Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, and less obvious fan picks like Iceman, Angel, and Gambit. However, Kitty Pryde is the one mutant who needs to be in the first MCU X-Men movie. That’s because she could serve as the perfect audience surrogate, and her presence may save the MCU’s ambitious Phase 7.
3 Reasons Kitty Pryde Needs To Join the MCU
Built-In Youth Appeal
It’s easy to think of superhero fatigue as something amorphous and impossible to understand. However, Marvel's fatigue is primarily driven by a demographic problem. The MCU remains relatively popular with Millennials who started watching in 2008, but its modern movies and shows aren’t nearly as popular with younger audiences, such as Gen Z (aka Zoomers).
Putting a teenage Kitty Pryde in the X-Men movie (no matter how long it takes to release) will give the MCU some built-in youth appeal. That may sound a little on the nose, but there’s a reason why characters like Peter Parker and Miles Morales are so popular: representation matters, and younger audiences like to see their generation on the big screen.
The presence of Kitty Pryde may win over Zoomers that otherwise wouldn’t be impressed by the rumored return of the aging Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.
A Natural Audience Surrogate
Many fans think the biggest problem with the upcoming MCU reboot is that people will have trouble understanding recasting. That’s not true, though: audiences didn’t freak out when Rhodey was recast, and most people are unexplicably excited to see Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. play Doctor Doom. What everyone will have trouble understanding, though, is what has and hasn’t changed in the MCU after Secret Wars, which gives this entire universe a much-needed reboot.
However, explaining the major points to the audience will be easy by laying things out to Kitty Pryde (who might just be played by Julia Butters). As a young person taking her first step into a world of heroes and villains, it would make sense to have older characters like Charles Xavier explain the major aspects of this new universe, including where mutants fit in alongside established teams like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
Just like that, this new character helps get audiences up to speed without slowing the plot down for some otherwise clunky exposition dumps.
Her Stories Are Perfect For the Big Screen
Most of the X-Men have decades of comic history that would be fun to see in a movie, but Kitty Pryde has stories that would be perfect for the MCU compared to other characters’ whose stories would lead to box office disaster. For example, she is introduced as part of the same classic Dark Phoenix saga that introduced us to Emma Frost and the rest of the Hellfire Club.
While the first X-Men movie probably won’t give us Dark Phoenix, it would be natural to adapt other parts of this comic tale, one which establishes cool mutant villains other than Magneto (read more about that here) while also setting up enemies like Emma Frost that would later become powerful allies.
If the MCU wanted to get really strident with mutants as a metaphor for oppressed groups, we might get an adaptation of God Loves, Man Kills, in which Kitty Pryde debates with an anti-mutant bigot on live television.
Or if Kevin Feige wants more of a standalone tale, we might get a movie adapting Uncanny X-Men #143, which featured Kitty defending the Xavier mansion from a xenomorph-like demon. She’d also be a perfect lead if we ever get a proper New Mutants spinoff movie (the Fox one was just atrocious) or an ideal sidekick in the inevitable solo Wolverine movie.
Simply put, the key to good X-Men movies is Kitty Pryde. And she’s much more critical because good X-Men movies may be all that can save MCU’s Phase 7.
Dr. Chris Snellgrove is a staff writer who joined The Direct in 2025. He is a veteran entertainment writer who has written for a number of national outlets and reputable sites, with his hot takes on movies and TV shows reaching millions of fellow nerds. When he's not busy reading comics and watching the latest in superhero smackdpwn cinema, he loves to cosplay his favorite fandoms at conventions throughout America.
