Casting The X-Men For The MCU
8. Charles Xavier - Ralph Fiennes
Patrick Stewart is to Charles Xavier what J. K. Simmons is to J. Jonah Jameson - the pure living embodiment of a comic book icon.
Filling those boots, then, is an unenviable task. James McAvoy had the freedom to do what he wanted with the character, having taken on a version of Charles that was in his mid-twenties during the sixties before ageing in the years following, but playing Professor X in his prime is a different matter altogether.
There is one actor who's up to the task however, and one who is - surprisingly - yet to star in a fully-fledged comic book film. Ralph Fiennes has all the tools in the trade to make the MCU's Charles Xavier, providing both the sophistication and the calming influence Professor X exuded in abundance during the comics themselves.