X-Men’s Biggest Mystique Fan Casting Beautifully Comes To Life In New MCU Art
Warning: This article contains spoilers from Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Brand-new fan art reveals how Mystique might look when the X-Men join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The X-Men are slowly being introduced in the MCU, starting with Jean Grey in this summer's blockbuster hit Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Recent reports indicate that Kit Connor and Samara Weaving have been cast as Scott Summers/Cyclops and Emma Frost, respectively, though Marvel Studios hasn't made any official announcements yet.
There have also been plenty of rumors about other actors being considered for X-Men characters in the MCU, with one in particular—Obsession's Inde Navarrette—expressing a desire to play Mystique and admitting she had a meeting with Jake Schreier, who's directing the upcoming film.
Now graphic artist and illustrator Rafael Caban is showing off his concept illustration on Instagram that gives a preview of what the actress might look like in-character as Mystique if she lands the role. The fan art of Navarrette-as-Mystique shows the actress with blue skin (and black scales), red hair and yellow eyes while holding a skull in one hand.
The fan and artist admitted they're "genuinely hoping" the rumors about Navarrette are true and teased that more art is coming soon. "I'm excited about the X-Men," they added.
As of this writing, the Instagram post has 4,600 likes. Several social media users left comments praising the artist's skills and saying that Navarrette would be perfect for the X-Men role, though some people said they preferred Hunter Schafer for Mystique.
The X-Men character is a shapeshifting mutant who can change her appearance to anyone she wants. On the big screen, the character was first played by Rebecca Romijn in 20th Century Fox's version of the franchise, which included X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: First Class.
Then Jennifer Lawrence took over the role for X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix when the film series showed the origins of the iconic superhero characters.
Disney now owns the rights to X-Men following its acquisition of 20th Century Fox (now called 20th Century Studios).
While previous versions have made appearances in the MCU, like Patrick Stewart's Charles Xavier in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Kelsey Grammer's Beast in The Marvels, there's been a lot of speculation in the fandom over how the new iteration of the characters will be introduced.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day started that process with the introduction of Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink. The MCU's Multiverse Saga is about to conclude with Avengers: Doomsday on December 18 and Avengers: Secret Wars a year later, so Marvel Studios is gearing up for the next phase of the franchise, which will see a huge focus on the X-Men.
Schreier will direct the MCU's first X-Men film after helming 2025's Thunderbolts*, which received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, even though it failed to make a profit at the box office. Joanna Calo and Lee Sung Jin are writing the script.
A release date hasn't been revealed yet, but with the casting process currently underway, more X-Men announcements will surely be made in the weeks and months to come.