Since the first live-action film opened in 2000, the 20th Century Fox X-Men series has taken dozens of fan-favorite mutants from the comics and translated them to the big screen. From household names like Wolverine to more obscure picks like Darwin and Multiple Man, the variety of X-mutants who have made it into the movies is impressive.
That said, X-Men fans are difficult to satisfy, and a whole lot of great mutants have yet to get their time to shine onscreen. With the X-Men poised to enter the MCU, now is the perfect time for fans to start thinking about which characters would make their live-action wishlist.
10 Rictor's Struggles Make Him A Relatable Hero
Julio Richter, AKA Rictor, has the power of geokinesis. He creates earthquakes and sends powerful vibrations through any surface. When Rictor's powers first manifested, he accidentally shook three city blocks into rubble before being captured by the Right and tortured. After X-Factor rescued him, he learned to channel his powers, but his rough upbringing and early struggles continued to haunt him.
In the MCU, Rictor would provide the Marvel films with some much-needed gay representation. In addition, his impoverished early life and struggles with depression make him a grounded character who represents important sectors of the real world.
9 Prodigy's Powers Are Not Flashy
David Alleyne has a unique power. He telepathically absorbs information from anyone who gets close to him. His powers are less controllable than telepaths like Jean Grey and Charles Xavier, but his ability to retain the information he absorbs makes him one of the smartest mutants in Marvel Comics.
Prodigy makes an interesting character onscreen because his powers are not innately cinematic. There is no flashy physical effect for SFX to replicate. However, with the MCU's reliance on CGI, a character whose powers are only as interesting as the actor portraying them would make for a refreshing change of pace.
8 Polaris Is A Reluctant But Powerful Superhero
Despite being Magneto's daughter, Lorna Dane leaves the superhero life early in her career to study geology alongside Alex Summers. But circumstances keep dragging her back to the various X-teams no matter how much she would rather just work on her master's degree.
Polaris did appear in the short-lived Fox show The Gifted, but due to the show's closed-off nature, her relationships with Magneto and Havoc were never explored. The show also lacked the budget to show off her magnetic powers to their full extent. The TV version of Polaris was underutilized and never crossed over into the movies.
7 Beak Shows What It's Like To Be An Unsexy Mutant
Over the years, many X-Men writers have developed characters who represent the marginalized side of the mutant community, mutants who are born with disfiguring abilities, and as a result, rejected by society. Chris Claremont told this side of the story with the sewer-dwelling Morlocks, and Grant Morrison created an array of students who were a far cry from the sexy twenty-somethings who form the core X-Men team.
One of Morrison's most enduring X-Men characters is Barnell Bohusk, AKA Beak, a teenager with wings, bird-like features, and none of Warren Worthington's wealth and good looks. Beak struggles through life, becoming an unexpected father with fellow student Angel Salvadore and an unwilling member of the Exiles. He eventually settled down in a peaceful rural home with Angel and their children, though, and for a while was one of the few Xavier students who got to live a domestic life.
6 Rachel Summers May Be The Most Powerful Mutant In Existence
Rachel Summers' origin is so complicated that it's unsurprising that she never made it into any of the Fox films. She is the daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, sent back in time to find her parents. However, after the events of Days of Future Past, her timeline was erased and she was left stranded in the present.
Rachel has one of the saddest backstories of all the X-Men, but she also has the power of the Phoenix Force, making her one of the most powerful beings in existence. Her power levels aside, Rachel's resilience in the face of tragedy and her close relationship with Kitty Pryde makes her a favorite for comics fans, as well as a potential breakout star should she ever show up onscreen.
5 Armor's Power Is Visually Stunning
Hisako Ichiki first appeared in Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run and has been a mainstay of the comics ever since. Hisako, later given the codename Armor, was originally just a hostage of the evil alien Ord, but as her skill with her powers grew, she became a formidable fighting force and a leader to her fellow students.
The Ms. Marvel TV series revamped Kamala Khan's powers into something that resembles Armor's ability to create and shape translucent barriers. But Armor's constructs are bigger and more elaborate, usually manifesting as a big, red mech suit. Translated to live action, Armor's powers would make for an incredible visual.
4 Hellion Is The Mean Kid On Campus
The Fox X-Men films have had some great entries, but the franchise rarely showed the adolescent mutants at Xavier's school. Mutant powers and attacks from Sentinels aside, life at Xavier's school is not that different from life at a real high school, with cliques, social anxieties, romances, and sometimes even bullies. Julian Keller, AKA Hellion, was introduced in the Academy X era as the mean kid and an antagonist for the New Mutants.
Hellion is the type of character who makes perfect sense in the X-universe, but who rarely appears: the mean kid. The work he does to become a better person also makes him a complex, fleshed-out X-character. Hellion could inject some high school drama into the live-action version of Xavier's School.
3 Glob Herman Is Delightfully Weird
Not every mutant is gifted with an enviable ability. Glob Herman's "power" is that he is large, translucent, and flammable which makes him an outcast at Xavier's school. To his credit, Glob learned to accept his bizarre power and now seems content and socially healthy.
Glob's a difficult character to make believable onscreen, but his wonderful design would captivate audiences. Glob is also one of the few relatively drama-free characters in the X-books, making for a pleasant change of pace from the complex social dynamics of the mutant world.
2 Dust Is Like No Other X-Men Character
Though Nightcrawler's Catholicism is a central part of his character and Cannonball's Protestant upbringing informs much of his personality, the X-Men books rarely portray religions that are outside the Judeo-Christian sphere. The most well-known exception is Sooraya Qadir, AKA Dust, a devout Sunni Muslim who dutifully wears an abaya with a niqab for her face.
Dust possesses the power to disintegrate into sand and telekinetically turn her silicone body into a deadly weapon. Her faith often puts her at odds with her actions as a superhero, and her devotion to Islam sometimes alienates her from her fellow students. She's a mutant who struggles against prejudices that go far beyond her powers, which makes her a fascinating character.
1 Boom Boom Is The Coolest Mutant
In over 50 years of X-Men comics, no mutant has ever matched the sheer coolness of Tabitha Smith, AKA Boom Boom, whose power is to create "time bombs" made of pure energy. She was first introduced in Secret Wars II, where she met the omnipotent Beyonder and dropped a bomb down the back of his pants. She next appeared in the pages of X-Factor, where she was introduced as the coolest kid on the streets and the champion at her local arcade.
Since then, Boom Boom has continued to be unfazed even in the direst circumstances. For Boom Boom, every problem in life can be solved with an explosion. Her chill demeanor might make her seem dense, but she has a sensitive side, too, and she forms strong bonds with Cannonball, Sunspot, and even Sabretooth in the course of her stories.