10 Famous Characters Who Acted Totally Out Of Character In Sequels

7. Charles Xavier - X-Men: The Last Stand

Who doesn't love Professor X? The softly-spoken, welcoming beacon of solidarity throughout the X Men franchise, the (formerly) walking personification of acceptance and the one character we can trust to be there in a world of cynics that despise our long-suffering outsider protagonists. That he was. By the time the franchise was (temporarily) dumped by director Bryan Singer in favour of a mediocre Superman reboot and inherited by the decidedly less able Brett Ratner, someone decided (probably Ratner) that Charles Xavier would work better as a snarky, short-tempered douchebag. There's a particular scene in X Men: The Last Stand that serves as the perfect example of this glaring character assassination. When he and Wolverine are tending to the unconscious body of recently-discovered-to-still-be-alive Jean Grey, the story of the Phoenix - Grey's subconscious dark side - is relayed by Xavier who then reveals that he is actively keeping her unconscious mind in check. Wolverine is understandably disgusted by this and when he attempts to argue with the professor about the wrongness of manipulating someone's mind, Xavier shrugs off the concern with the line "I don't have to explain myself, least of all to you." Why be such a dick, Charles? Don't take it out on Wolverine, the poor guy is worried for his friend! Unfortunately Xavier has little screen time left before he is promptly offed by Jean, so he is denied the opportunity to redeem himself for that gutless remark. X Men: The Last Stand's biggest downfall is that it takes the beloved character of Xavier and makes his final, substantial act one of gutless refusal, before taking him away and leaving a sour taste in our mouths. It doesn't help, either, that the next time we properly see him he's 40 years younger and played by a different actor. I guess we'll have to wait for Days of Future Past to see if his former polite level-headedness has been restored.