Jennifer Lawrence's Raven Darkholme has become one of the most divisive aspects of Fox's X-Men series, with many speculating that the actor has too much star-power for the franchise to actually accommodate.
Mystique, having decided in First Class that she'd stop hiding behind disguises, reversed that decision come Days of Future Past and Apocalypse - two films released after the conclusion of the immensely popular Hunger Games trilogy, as well as after the actor's appearance in the Oscar-Nominated American Hustle.
Marvel may have to find a new kind of blue makeup to convince anyone to play Mystique, but she's still an important character in the franchise and one that's nailed on for an appearance in the event of a reboot. Introduce an arc surrounding Nightcrawler's parentage and have Mystique working against the X-Men in a more classic role, potentially vying for control of the Brotherhood with Magneto, and Charlize Theron would excel in equal regard.
Theron has only gone from one high to another throughout her career, and having already played two iconic female leads in Fury Road's Imperator and Atomic Blonde's Lorraine Broughton, stepping into the boots of Mystique shouldn't prove difficult.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
