10 Superhero Movie Performances That Were Totally Oscar-Worthy

Another X-Men performance, and this time it’s Patrick Stewart as Magneto’s old ally/rival, Professor Charles Xavier. Like Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart was painted into a bit of a corner by the direction and writing of the original trilogy. In Logan though, he really let loose.

The film is one of the grittiest major movies of the decade, superhero or no, and it needed stellar performances to carry it. Thankfully, that’s just what it got.

The wheelchair was no longer a prop to tie him to his comic persona; this version of Xavier was frail, confused, at his lowest ebb both physically and mentally. Stewart, still spry and working regularly at 78, was mesmerising.

For all the obvious frailty, there was nuance too, with this Xavier being far from a broken man. Stewart’s performance was one of a man slowly losing grip of himself.

Along with Christopher Reeve, Patrick Stewart is arguably the most likely here to have actually gotten nominated. He has clear acting pedigree and respect from the Academy, while the film itself was very atypical for a superhero feature and explored a very dark, character driven story. A real shame then that Stewart wasn’t given a nomination.