‘Best X-Men casting so far’: Whispers of Marvel’s final Charles Xavier are here – but isn’t MCU done with testing its luck?

The Bryan Cranston to lead their new X-Men team. Cranston is rumored to play Charles Xavier — the leader of the mutant academy and de facto soul of the entire franchise.

Some fans were excited by the news of this possibility. The source of the rumor is MyTimeToShineHello. Usually, there are a lot of rumors leading up to new MCU releases or casting announcements, and most fans tend to ignore them. But it’s different with this particular source. It’s worth noting that this was the same insider who first announced that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire would enter Spider-Man: No Way Home via a portal — well before it was even confirmed that the two would be in the movie. So there’s certainly some credibility to their past leaks. Hopefully they can give us some Spider-Man: Brand New Day leaks soon too.

Bryan Cranston is reportedly being eyed to play Charles Xavier in the MCU.

(Via: MyTimeToShineHello) pic.twitter.com/hrmOMvwicZ

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As for Cranston, while there’s a temptation to dismiss the excitement as people just wanting to see him bald again, he arguably embodies Xavier more than he ever did Walter White. White was Cranston playing against type — that’s what made that performance so captivating. With every ing episode, White got a little worse. But when you watch Cranston in interviews — especially the ones where he gets ionate about politics — he’s actually a very convincing orator. And considering Xavier’s main strength is talking both heroes and villains off the ledge, this suggests Cranston could be a worthy successor to Sir Patrick Stewart. Many fans seem to feel that exact same way, with some posting photoshopped images of Cranston as Xavier and boldly proclaiming, “Let him cook!”

Let him cook pic.twitter.com/xzMkYOoHZD

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But there’s also a much less discussed aspect to this potential casting: weren’t these movies working best when they hired actors? One social media expressed how tired they were of seeing the “same faces.”

I miss when they went out of their way to hire up and coming actors. Stop recycling the guys with amazing careers, give us someone new for once. Tired of seeing the same actors in everything I see

— Benjamin. (@bheadr75) May 27, 2025

When the MCU grew into the force it is today, it got there through relatively less popular (at the time) names like Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth. These are household names now, but let’s not get it twisted — they weren’t before the MCU shone a light on their talent. Now, the franchise casts the Angelina Jolies and Christian Bales of the world. This shift in strategy has yielded very diminishing returns. There’s a specific way these movies work, and that’s by making the superhero the biggest star in the room. They’re meant to be bigger than any one movie — as they recur across franchises — and certainly bigger than any one particular movie star. Movie stars will always have their place in the greater cinematic landscape, but we probably don’t need Tom Hanks to be the next Magneto.

And besides, there’s the question of how long these films take to wrap. A movie star disappearing into the vast workings of Kevin Feige’s universe for the greater part of a decade, while not doing the kind of work we’d probably prefer seeing them in — the kind that opens the Cannes Film Festival or brings home an Oscar — is a real concern. For instance, does anyone really need Timothée Chalamet to appear in the MCU as the next Cyclops, or would that just be distracting?

If the formula isn’t broken, don’t fix it, Marvel.