10 Comic Book Movie Deaths That Should Never Have Happened

The first two X-Men films do an outstanding job. The first introduces the likes of Wolverine, Charles Xavier, Cyclops and Magneto, providing a plot line that still holds its own despite the booming success of the MCU over the last decade, while the second builds on its predecessor by expanding the comic book heroes that so many of its viewers grew up furiously flicking through the pages to learn about.

And then the third film, The Last Stand, came out. The film experienced problems in pre-production with Bryan Singer leaving to work on Superman Returns and taking Cyclops himself, James Marsden, with him in a decision that ultimately proved to be the entire trilogy’s undoing.

Because the third movie of the X-Men trilogy is all over the place, with Cyclops’ premature death ensuring the rest of the film experiences problems for its entire 1 hour 47 minute duration. Marsden’s character is pivotal in the Wolverine and Jean Grey love story and many fans, after seeing Wolverine fall for her in the previous instalment, was anticipating an epic showdown where two of the X-Men would fight hammer and tongs for her when, inevitably, she would return from her own premature death.

Instead, however, Cyclops is killed early and the Wolverine and Grey love arc loses its spark. X Men had many problems – killing Xavier off only to resurrect him was another one – but its foolish decision to give Cyclops the axe, rather than simply recast Marsden’s character, was one of the biggest reasons the franchise ended on a low note.