The fact that the X-Men franchise focuses on a team of heroes - including the immortal Wolverine and the mind-reading genius Professor X - means that these movies always need several strong villainous characters to match. At the very least, each film needs to be a tough-to-beat big bad (for the brainy X-Men to worry about) and a collection of formidable henchmen (to fight everyone else). As the franchise has been going for 16 years, a lot of the most famous villains from the X-Men comics have already made it to the big screen. Audiences have seen multiple Magnetos and William Strykers by this stage, as well as memorable takes on Bolivar Trask, The Sentinels, Sebastian Shaw and The Hellfire Club. So, in order to keep the franchise going for another 16 years, Bryan Singer and his 20th Century Fox cohorts will have to delve deeper into comic book lore. Theyll have to pluck out some obscure villains that the casual viewer will never have heard of, and mould them into truly nefarious neer-do-wells worthy of the cinema screen. Here are ten that could fit wonderful into the movie universe, after Oscar Isaacs Apocalypse is trounced later this year
10. Shadow King (Ving Rhames)
Visually and thematically, The Shadow King is one of the best X-Men villains that hasnt reached the big screen yet. Hes a dark, monstrous being comprised of psychic energy that hates all mankind and manifests on Earth by possessing the bodies of normal people. Hes immortal, telepathic, and would be more than a match for the filmic X-Men. Its easy to imagine The Shadow King dominating a movie. Hed be massive threat, especially due to his ability to possess members of the team without their friends and allies knowing. If The Shadow King could gain control over a mutant as powerful as Wolverine, for example, the rest of the team would be utterly screwed. And no one could trust anyone, once they worked out what was afoot. Since The Shadow King would presumably be a CGI creation, Fox would only need a voice performance for this villain (akin to the way that James Earl Jones voices Darth Vader and Tony Todd plays Zoom in The Flash). Ive always imagined The Shadow King with a deep, booming voice. With that in mind, perhaps Ving Rhames vocal chords would be up to the job, building on his hugely intimidating performance from Pulp Fiction.
