Casting The X-Men For The MCU

7. Erik Lensherr - Daniel Craig

But who should play Xavier's rival? Though he'd probably hate every moment of it, Daniel Craig - who's set to finally retire his tenure as James Bond in Danny Boyle's upcoming film - would make the perfect Magneto.

Charming, intellectual, but with the drive to see his vision through, Craig is everything Erik Lensherr should be in the rebooted X-Men series. As with Fiennes and Professor X Craig has some pretty big shoes to fill, with Ian McKellen having captured the essence of the anti-villain in every X-Men film he starred in. It's a task Craig can easily accomplish though, providing he deems the Brotherhood of Mutants to be more mature than Ian Fleming's globe-trotting super-spy (which they are).

In any case, this new series of X films should look to provide nuance to the divide between the X-Men and the Brotherhood. Craig himself is more than capable of injecting that complexity into the role, and perhaps make audiences question whether it really is Charles who's right about the path to mutant liberation, or Erik instead.