There’s been a baker’s dozen of X-Men movies in the Fox universe, and, in those films, countless characters have been introduced. Many of these characters were pulled straight from the pages of Marvel Comics themselves. As such, many fans were excited to see these characters finally appear on the silver screen.
Unfortunately, though, many of those characters appeared only briefly, or for barely a second at all. Even the characters that got more space weren’t treated half as well — or interpreted half as correctly — as they should have been. In the end, there ended up being many characters that the X-Men movies introduced only to be wasted.
10 Cyclops Was Never Well-Liked By The Movies’ Creators
While Cyclops, or Scott Summers, is one of the most important and prominent X-Men characters across multiple platforms, the creators of the X-Men movies did not like him nearly so much. He should have had a valuable place on the team as he so often did.
Unfortunately, in the movies, Cyclops is strangely more of an enemy to Wolverine than anything else. The two of them are constantly at odds, and Cyclops’ character gets sacrificed in the process of trying to make Wolverine the main character.
9 Storm Didn’t Get Her Story Explored In Any Depth
Along with many other mutants that have rich backstories and absolutely no time on the silver screen was Storm, or Ororo Munroe. She’s canonically been around for years, having been raised and trained at Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.
However, she barely gets any time with her own stories. While Wolverine, Cyclops, and Phoenix get a whole lot of screen time, Storm only has to serve as back-up to other characters. She’s a great teammate, but pushing her into the background does a disservice to her character.
8 Rogue Was A Shadow Of Herself In The Franchise
It seems that Rogue is practically unrecognizable in the X-Men movies. She was more of a brooding teenager than ever before, even when she was on television. The spark that Rogue has most often in the comics is just not present.
This is doubly unfortunate considering the fact that the first movie was originally framed around the main characters of Rogue and Wolverine. Over the years, Rogue basically faded into the background. Even at the very beginning, she was much blander and unlike herself than ever.
7 Kitty Pryde’s Story Was Taken Over By Wolverine
Many characters in the X-Men movies suffered from being pushed into the background in favor of Wolverine. Inexplicably, Wolverine is placed as the protagonist of pretty much every single X-Men movie.
Even in movies like X-Men: First Class, they just can’t help from including Wolverine in the movie, even if he has nothing to do with what’s going on. One of the characters who suffered most because of Wolverine was Kitty Pryde. The plot for X-Men: Days of Future Past should have featured her, but instead, Wolverine took over once again.
6 Darwin Was Killed Just As Soon As He Was Introduced
Several X-Men were introduced early on in X-Men: First Class as members of the first iteration of the team. Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr did a lot of work recruiting mutants to their cause, including one of the most powerful mutants they had ever met, Armando Muñoz, or Darwin.
His superhero name is Darwin because, as Armando says, he can adapt to survive to anything. Despite the fact that his ability is literally survival, Darwin is killed almost instantly in the film. The movies gave no space to Darwin, and the character is perhaps the one most wronged by the movies overall.
5 Banshee Deserved So Much More Space Than He Got
Like other X-Men characters, such as Cyclops and Storm, Banshee has a rich history and many stories of his own in the comics that he never got the space to explore in the movies. Banshee, also known by his real name of Sean Cassidy, was a young man when introduced in X-Men: First Class.
He actually even survived through the film, only to be killed alongside several other mutants in between films during mutant experimentations. Sean and Moira MacTaggert are even together in the comics, though they never got the chance for romance in the films.
4 Black Tom Cassidy Basically Became A Joke
Sean Cassidy isn’t the only Cassidy that was wasted in Fox’s X-Men movies. His cousin, the villain Thomas Samuel Eamon Cassidy — better known as Black Tom Cassidy — appeared in Deadpool 2. While Black Tom Cassidy is a villain for Banshee, Deadpool, and the X-Men as a whole in the comics, he was basically little more than a joke in the X-Men movies.
He was one of the imprisoned inmates in the Icebox in Deadpool 2, but never actually got to do anything while there. Instead, Deadpool just makes jokes about him before Cable ultimately accidentally kills Black Tom Cassidy and the plot completely moves on.
3 Scarlet Witch Was Little More Than An Easter Egg
While Scarlet Witch has been important enough in the MCU to warrant starring in her own show, WandaVision, she has no such presence in Fox’s X-Men films. Quicksilver has a more prominent role than she does, and even he doesn’t get as much space as he deserves.
When Wanda Maximoff is shown fleetingly, it is as a young child, not as a twin to her brother Quicksilver. She gets no screen time, no abilities, and absolutely nothing to do in the movies.
2 Moira MacTaggert Had So Much More Of Her Own Life Than Was Shown
Moira MacTaggert actually becomes something of a love interest for Charles Xavier in the Fox X-Men movies, but she’s much more than that in the comics. She was also a love interest for Sean Cassidy, as mentioned before, and the two of them had a life together.
Romances aside, though, Moira is a doctor, a spy, a scientist, and an expert in mutant studies and genetics, as well as a hero. She works alongside the early X-Men in movies like X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Apocalypse, but still, she gets nowhere near the amount of space a character like her deserves.
1 Iceman Is A Fan Favorite Who Was Ultimately Barely Used
Iceman has undoubtedly become a fan favorite over the years. People truly love Bobby Drake, and so they were excited when the character was brought into play in Fox’s X-Men movies.
However, like many other X-Men characters in these movies, Iceman was mostly used as support on the team, and as a background character to help out others. While this is necessary in some respects, Iceman appeared in so many movies that, like Rogue or Storm, he deserved far more recognition than he ever actually got.