James Marsden, meanwhile, is an actor who never really got his due in the X-Men films. Cyclops in general tends to be spectacularly mishandled in many of his comic book, TV and movie incarnations, portrayed as nothing more than a goody-two-shoes with no real depth who mostly serves as a foil for the way cooler fan favourite Wolverine. So, Marsden mostly spent the first two X-Men films as a one-dimensonal leader, something of a wet blanket, and a charisma vacuum. His appearances in films as diverse as Anchorman 2 and Robot & Frank prove he's anything but. Then Cyclops got killed off, off-screen, in The Last Stand. Hopefully Tye Sheridan will have better luck playing the younger Scott Summers. The 18-year-old Texan certainly has the right look for Cyclops and does kinda look like a younger James Marsden and has been justly praised for his performances in a couple of recent superlative Southern Gothic crime tales, holding his own alongside Matthew McConaughey in Mud, and then Nicolas Cage in last year's Joe.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
