Professor X after Patrick Stewart: will McAvoy finish his story?

With the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart, the big question for me is what happens now to Charles Xavier's arc in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. There are several options. My favorite would be for James McAvoy to pick up the baton and finish the race for Stewart as the Fox era Professor X.

Avengers: Doomsday was already going to have me in my feelings, with Stewart and Ian McKellen returning as Xavier and Magneto in an Avengers movie. This is the movie I've wanted since I was 8 years old. We know the original Fox X-Men will play a pivotal role in Doomsday, Xavier especially. So does Xavier get written out, do they kill the character off again, or does McAvoy come in to finish the Fox era Xavier's story?

Patrick Stewart is Professor Xavier to me

First, I want to say how sad it is to have lost Patrick Stewart. He was 86 years old, so he certainly lived a long life, and he kept doing what he loved until the very end. I grew up with the Fox X-Men movies as well as the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, so Patrick Stewart is Professor Xavier to me.

We would not be where we are with the success of the comic book movie genre if not for Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen as well. They brought a level of credibility to this genre, and they showed that it can be far more than a kids' movie.

Xavier's story may always have been planned to end in Avengers: Doomsday

It's possible that Xavier's story was always going to wrap up in Doomsday. Marvel is no stranger to killing off this character. They've got a new Xavier coming down the pipe, and the new Jean Grey is going to be in Secret Wars. So it's possible that neither Xavier nor the original X-Men were planned to have a role in Secret Wars, and that their story ends with Doomsday.

I could absolutely see a scenario where some X-Men, Xavier especially, sacrifice themselves in an attempt to save both worlds from an incursion. That would let Xavier redeem himself for things he's ashamed of, given the rumors that the X-Men have been destroying other universes as incursions happen in the lead-up to Doomsday. We've already had a glimpse of that, with the X-Men universe, universe 10005, and another universe firing on each other as an incursion ensues.

Xavier sacrificing himself to make up for what they've been doing to save themselves could become a major turning point for Magneto. Maybe that motivates Magneto to carry on Charles's dream into Secret Wars and lead the X-Men lineup we get there. I think that would be a beautiful conclusion to their relationship, given how much of the Fox X-Men movies revolved around those two men and their competing philosophies.

The Fox X-Men who survive Doomsday should still matter in Secret Wars

I do think the Fox X-Men who survive Doomsday are planned to have a role in Secret Wars. I think Secret Wars will have a different set of leads. Doomsday is more about Thor, Steve, Reed, Yelena, Xavier and Magneto. Secret Wars probably leans more into Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Tom Holland's Spider-Man, bringing in Wanda Maximoff and Doctor Strange. I think prominent Doomsday cast members will still be important.

I think, and frankly hope, that there are still Fox X-Men kicking around Battleworld in Secret Wars, like James Marsden's Cyclops. I need him there. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine will likely have a big role to play, and I'm getting excited about the prospect of Marsden's Cyclops and Jackman's Wolverine interacting again.

With Stewart's passing, Logan might now be the last time Jackman and Stewart shared the screen as Logan and Xavier, unless we see them interact in Doomsday. But maybe we see all the surviving X-Men working together in Secret Wars, with Jackman's Wolverine and McKellen's Magneto, coming together to avenge the professor. I think there's probably going to be some type of tribute to Professor Xavier in Secret Wars.

How Avengers: Doomsday will likely end and what Battleworld means for Xavier

Before we can get into what Secret Wars will look like, we need to talk about how Doomsday will likely end. Like many others, I assume Doomsday ends with the collapse of the entire multiverse and the creation of Doom's Battleworld. I think that will be a collection of fragments from different universes that Doom assembles into a kingdom within the void at the end of time.

I think some prominent Doomsday characters will be living within the walls of that kingdom without their memory of what went down, living new lives under their god emperor Doom, just like in the comics. Then you have those outside the walls, out in the void, like Wolverine, Tobey's Spider-Man and Wanda, fully aware of Doom's betrayal and the need to stop him.

This is where Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars storyline becomes relevant. Doom isn't simply ruling over a collection of surviving universes. He has essentially rewritten reality, creating a world where people have histories, relationships and identities that fit this new existence. Most of them don't realize anything has changed. As far as they're concerned, Battleworld is the only world they have ever known. That is what makes Doom so dangerous: he doesn't need to convince everybody he's right if nobody remembers there was another way of living.

That is very reminiscent of Thanos's plan at the end of Avengers: Endgame, when he says: "I will shred this universe down to its last atom and then create a new one that knows not what it is lost, but only what it has been given." So theoretically, if Xavier survives Doomsday, he would be inside the walls with the other heroes. As for the rumored ending from prominent leaks, from what we're hearing, everyone will die in the final battle with Doom. I think I read that the incursion occurs, everyone is wiped out but Doom, and then Doom creates Battleworld and brings everyone back.

Why James McAvoy is the right actor to carry Stewart's Xavier forward

That creates an interesting opportunity to do something special with Xavier. If, and it's a big if, Marvel had plans for Doomsday's Xavier to have a role in Secret Wars, then maybe they don't abandon those plans. Maybe they keep Xavier and cast the man who has played this exact same Fox era version before, James McAvoy.

Unlike many other legacy characters, there's already an established actor who has played the same character in the same franchise. Audiences have already accepted that Stewart and McAvoy are the same version of Professor X at different points in time. Marvel wouldn't be introducing an unfamiliar face. McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both did phenomenal jobs stepping into those roles, giving their own spin while remaining faithful to Stewart's and McKellen's takes.

I think McAvoy's performance in X-Men: Days of Future Past is brilliant. He plays a broken, disillusioned Charles who has given up on his dream, and his older self, Stewart's Xavier, helps him rediscover his hope alongside Jackman's Wolverine. I love that scene between McAvoy and Stewart, and there's something poetic about McAvoy possibly returning to carry Stewart's version forward.

I've long said I would have been down for McAvoy and Fassbender to return not only in Secret Wars but to continue as Xavier and Magneto in the post Secret Wars era. That's obviously not going to happen, since Marvel has cast its new Xavier, Christopher Abbott. But for Secret Wars, what if we could still get McAvoy back?

Professor X could become one of Doom's key lieutenants in Battleworld

There could be an in-story reason he appears younger. Perhaps he can walk now, and maybe he has his hair back. That could all be the result of Doom trying to make Xavier happy and keep him in his good graces, perhaps using him as a key piece of his arsenal of powerful people. Doom may very well need a super powerful telepath on his side to brainwash Battleworld's residents into thinking of him as a god.

There's comic book precedent for this. In the 2015 Secret Wars comics, Doctor Strange serves as Doom's right-hand man. Strange knows Doom isn't the god everyone believes him to be, but he goes along with it because Doom managed to save what was left of existence. Xavier could occupy a similar position, not because he's evil or has abandoned his principles, but because Doom has convinced him this new world is the best possible outcome, maybe the only one. If Xavier is helping maintain the illusion, willingly or perhaps unknowingly, that could make him one of the most important characters in Secret Wars.

Beyond his legs, his hair and his youth, the most convincing thing for Charles could be a section of the kingdom that is a safe paradise for mutants, with mutants accepted throughout Doom's new world. I could see that swaying Xavier to stay with Doom. A world where mutants and humans coexist peacefully is his dream and the reason he founded the X-Men. The Xavier Institute in Battleworld could be thriving, his students safe, mutants no longer hunted by Sentinels. Maybe he even gets a life without some of the tragedies that defined him.

Then somebody comes along and tells him the world is a lie and they need his help to bring the old multiverse back. Does he help destroy the world where his dream came true, knowing it could bring back the suffering mutants endured, or accept Doom's reality? I think that's a compelling conflict, because Charles isn't morally perfect. We've seen him manipulate people's memories, keep secrets from his students and make questionable decisions he believed were in their best interest. Imagine if Wolverine, who has been on the outside, convinces him he's wrong. Logan relied on Charles for guidance, and we could get a little repeat of Days of Future Past, with Logan reminding McAvoy's Xavier who he really is.

Michael Fassbender's Magneto and Ian McKellen's place in Secret Wars

If you bring back McAvoy, do you also bring back Fassbender, and what about McKellen? Under no circumstances do I want to bench McKellen if there are plans for him in Secret Wars. But I love the idea of McAvoy and Fassbender reprising their roles in a movie that, in tandem with Doomsday, is a celebration of Marvel's cinema history. There's a story reason they could be in their physical prime, a bit like the idea that when you die and go to heaven, you're young again.

Maybe the older Magneto is outside the walls, and Fassbender's younger Erik is a simulated version created the same way Wanda created different lives in her Hex, all part of convincing Charles this is a better world. What if Doom gives Charles back his best friend, creating a reality where they never had their falling out and are running the school and protecting mutants together? Restoring the multiverse would then mean giving up the life where he and Erik got their happy ending. Then McKellen could come in and say they worked things out, eventually achieved some semblance of peace, and can still do that.

What I hope happens to universe 10005 after Secret Wars

I hope that once Secret Wars ends and we leave the Multiverse Saga, we see several realities become one, such as the Fantastic Four universe and the mainline MCU likely merging, and the 616 X-Men really begin. I hope the implication isn't that universe 10005 is just no more. I hope we learn it's reborn and continues to exist, with some of those characters returning home for a happily ever after.

Then there's Deadpool, who I think might be one of the only characters still playing with the multiverse. Jackman's Wolverine could be there as well, and maybe they work for the TVA so they pop in occasionally. I think Deadpool is definitely a character we're going to see more of in the MCU. Marvel could even bring Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Deadpool's version of Colossus into the new X-Men movies. I love that version of Colossus.

My verdict: let McAvoy finish the race for Patrick Stewart

There are many possibilities. Xavier may always have been going to die in Doomsday. Marvel may now change Doomsday so Xavier dies since Stewart can't reprise the role, or write in something explaining why he's gone.

My favorite option would be for McAvoy to pick up the baton and finish the race for Patrick Stewart. This whole saga has been very meta, a celebration of the Marvel universe beyond the MCU, and I would love to see McAvoy play the character one more time. Seeing him come in and finish the story, maybe in the part Stewart was originally planned to play, would feel special. I think that would be beautiful.