Patrick Stewart Open to Playing Professor X Again, With Deadpool

CBR

By Tim Adams

Published Mar 3, 2017

The X-Men veteran now says he'd consider bringing Charles Xavier out of retirement for the Merc With a Mouth.

Although Patrick Stewart announced just last week that he's retiring from Fox's X-Men franchise with "Logan," he already may be reconsidering that decision.

During a Facebook Live Q&A with MTV, Stewart was asked again whether "Logan" is his final appearance as Professor Charles Xavier, a character he's played in seven films, beginning with 2000's "X-Men." After some consideration, he conceded he's open to the possibility of sharing the screen with a character he's yet to cross paths with: Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool.

"I would have said yes," Stewart said, "but the discussion just now about 'Deadpool' makes me think, well, maybe there is a proper justification for the revival of Charles Xavier."

Stewart recently discussed how emotional it was coming to the realization that "Logan" would be the perfect end note for his tenure as Professor X.

“A week ago, Friday night in Berlin, the three of us sat, watching the movie," he recalled. "And I was so moved by it, much more moved than I had been the first time of seeing it. Maybe it was the company of these two guys, but the movie ended and — this is an admission — but at one point [Hugh] reached out, and he took my hand in those last few minutes, and I saw him go [mimes wiping a tear from his eye] like this, and then I realized I had just done the same thing. Then, the movie ended … and we were going to be taken up on stage, but not until the credits were over. So, we had some time to sit there and, as I sat there I realized there will never be a better, a more perfect, a more sensitive, emotional, and beautiful way of saying au revoir to Charles Xavier than this movie. So, I told [Hugh] that same evening, ‘I’m done too. It’s all over.’”

Directed by James Mangold, “Logan” is set in the near future, years after the epilogue of 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” In it, a weary Logan, whose healing factor is failing, cares for an ailing Professor X in a hideout on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, pursued by dark forces.

Now in theaters nationwide, “Logan” stars Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Richard E. Grant, Dafne Keen and Stephen Merchant.