The X-Men franchise may have first kicked off over two decades ago. However, if the recent fervor when Evan Peters’ Quicksilver appeared on WandaVision is any indicator, fan interest in the franchise has not dwindled. People really did love the X-Men movies as they were coming out, but they started becoming about one person and one person only: Wolverine.

RELATED: 10 X-Men Who Stopped Being Important (& Why)

Movies like X-Men: First Class proved that the franchise didn’t just have to focus on Wolverine, but apparently, they never got the memo. The movies insisted on constantly including Wolverine, often to the detriment of other characters. The X-Men movies are filled with amazing characters, many of whom would have been much better protagonists than Wolverine ever was.

10 Professor X Proved A Long Time Ago Just How Interesting He Is

Charles Xavier And Erik Lehnsherr Together In X-Men First Class

After the original X-Men trilogy ended, fans weren’t quite sure what to expect next from the franchise. The next movies to come out were a bit scattered, but one stood out above the rest. X-Men: First Class proved itself to be one of the best movies in the entire franchise right from the jump.

This likely surprised the execs over at Fox making these movies, as so much effort went into centering Wolverine in the franchise, and he barely appears in this film. However, Charles Xavier does have a huge presence in this film. Right away, it became clear Professor X was more than good enough to be the franchise’s main protagonist.

9 Magneto Is The True Unsung Hero Of The X-Men Franchise

Erik Offers Charles A Chess Piece At The End Of Dark Phoenix

Alongside Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr appeared in the prequel film X-Men: First Class, and gave audiences what they wanted all along. Getting to see more of Magneto is what many audiences enjoy seeing from X-Men films.

RELATED: 10 X-Men Villains Who Wasted Their Potential

X-Men: First Class gave both Professor X and Magneto detailed and emotional origin stories, and Magneto could have easily been the franchise’s main protagonist from that point. Even now, people are realizing more and more that Magneto was probably right in his ideals, and that more people should listen to him. Magneto is the protagonist for any era, especially now.

8 Banshee Never Got Enough Space And Time To Shine

Charles Xavier And Sean Cassidy During The Training Montage X-Men First Class

There are so many X-Men who were relegated to the background in order to make space for the primary cast of characters. In doing so, so many amazing stories from the comics really never got a chance on the silver screen.

Sean Cassidy is one of the most interesting X-Men in the comics, and he was brought in in X-Men: First Class, though he was killed off between films. Like so many background X-Men, especially on these early teams, Banshee never got the space he should have gotten. He could have been a great protagonist, if given that space.

7 Mystique Could Explore A Lot Of Different Aspects Of The X-Men

Mystique Xmen First Class 21st century fox

Mystique is in the rare position of being able to go truly anywhere and be truly anyone. Not only has she proven in the X-Men movie universe that she’s more than capable of helping out either side of a conflict, but she can literally shapeshift into anyone.

RELATED: X-Men: 10 Qualities That Make Mystique Such A Deadly Mutant

Making Mystique the protagonist of the X-Men movies would have given the franchise the capability to go truly anywhere. Mystique could open any doors and bring the story to any point. Not only that, but she’s an interesting enough character on her own to fuel a story.

6 Havok Would Be An Interesting Protagonist For A Summers Story

Alex Summers Dies X-Men Apocalypse Havok Cropped

The Summers brothers were dealt with in very shallow depth in the X-Men movie universe, and never with any grace. Scott Summers was introduced first, but he was killed off in the original timeline — and was kind of a jerk while he was in it, thanks to the creators hating Cyclops.

However, the prequel movies tried to introduce his older brother, Alex Summers, to the story. Again, the characters were completely fumbled. Even when Cyclops came back, he wasn’t his full self. Even worse, while Cyclops and Havok did appear, their brother Gabriel — or Vulcan — never showed up. The Summers’ story was completely fumbled, but Alex could have been an amazing protagonist if they ever made it work.

5 Dark Phoenix Has Kept Coming Back, And For A Good Reason

Dark Phoenix displays her powers

Even after the X-Men franchise was rebooted, the Dark Phoenix plotline ended up coming back into play in a major way. It seems that the X-Men movie universe has a hard time staying away from the whole Dark Phoenix thing. This is actually part of what would make Jean Grey such a great protagonist.

If the franchise simply embraced their love and fascination with her and made her the protagonist of her own story, they might finally nail a Dark Phoenix story interpretation. As this has failed twice in the past, nobody has their hopes up, but Jean definitely has the potential.

4 Beast Quickly Became A Fan Favorite And Stayed That Way

beast and wolverine in the original x-men trilogy

The X-Men live chaotic lives in an even more chaotic world that seems to be constantly filled with turmoil. However, there is one steady anchor amongst the swirling vortex that is this team: Beast, or Hank McCoy.

RELATED: 10 X-Men Who Are Terrifying When They're Mad

Beast has always been the team’s constant and holds them all together when it seems that all hope is lost. When Beast snaps, the team knows that something terrible has truly happened. He’s the straight man for the team, in a way, but he’s also their rock — something the team, and the story, always needs.

3 Quicksilver Has Always Been A Whole Lot Of Fun

Quicksilver In X-Men: Apocalypse

It was surprising to audiences that Quicksilver was introduced to the X-Men movie universe without his equally famous sister, the Scarlet Witch, at his side. However, the X-Men movies and the MCU ended up doing a strange custody arrangement where one franchise kept Quicksilver, and the other got to use the Scarlet Witch.

Despite this oddity, Quicksilver was always one of the bright spots in the X-Men movies. Even when a movie was not doing great, any scene with Quicksilver was sure to make the movie twice as much fun, at least.

2 Iceman Could Offer A Fun New Lens To View The X-Men Through

Iceman Bobby Drake In The Original X-Men Movies passing a beer to Wolverine

For years, Iceman has been a fan-favorite for readers of the X-Men comics. This has become even more true recently, as Bobby Drake is openly gay in the comics now. Bobby Drake was great in the X-Men movies but, like so many other X-Men, never got enough time to shine.

If he was made the protagonist of the X-Men movies, not only would so many characters that never got space finally get it, but the franchise would have an openly queer protagonist. This is important on many levels. Separate from that, Iceman is just downright cool and much better as a protagonist for the franchise than Wolverine.

1 Shadowcat Never Got Enough Time Or Space To Do Anything Cool

Elliot Page As Kitty Pryde X-Men Days of Future Past

Casting Elliot Page as Kitty Pryde seemed to be a stroke of genius. The creators knew they had a talented actor ready to go playing an incredibly important role moving forward into X-Men: Days of Future Past. However, rather than using their existing talented actor and the story as it already existed in the comics, this story was changed so that Wolverine was the star.

So many X-Men were shuffled aside for Wolverine, but perhaps none so brutally as Shadowcat, who had an entire story taken because of the franchise’s obsession with Wolverine. If Shadowcat got to be the protagonist for the franchise, things would have probably gone a whole lot smoother, especially when it came to fixing the timelines.

NEXT: X-Men: 10 Ways First Class Is The Franchise's Best Movie