The X-Men are joining the MCU, and Disney tends to keep actors paired with their roles. Actors that may not have played a certain character for years are suddenly getting calls to reprise their parts in new MCU or Star Wars pieces. We saw Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire return as Spider-Man in No Way Home. Temuera Morrison has played Boba Fett and every clone trooper now for 20 years. And Genevieve O’Reilly has returned as Mon Mothma in the Star Wars series Andor, after playing the role once, 17 years ago, in a scene that didn’t even make it in a movie.
Now that X-Men is part of the MCU, one wonders, will we see some of those Sony actors return? There’s been talk about who will replace Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart for a new X-Men team, but will we see Jennifer Lawrence play Mystique? Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Drake? Elliot Page as Kitty Pryde? Page famously came out as a trans man in 2020 and has been one of Hollywood’s most notable trans actors. After his transition, he was still willing to play female characters, despite some controversy. Would he reprise his role as Shadowcat? Because X-Men could be the perfect place for him to do it.
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The X-Men Have Always Been Inspired By World Events
20th Century Fox
X-Men was created in the 1960s as a comic book that provided a metaphor for racial tensions at the time. Professor X represented the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his peaceful approach toward equality for African Americans at that time. And Magneto was more like Malcolm X, who was willing to enact violence to defend his people. But that’s not the only time X-Men took on social issues.
In 1988 the X-Men’s island nation of Genosha acted as a metaphor for South African Apartheid. In Joss Whedon’s 2004 story arc, the mutant cure was analogous to conversion therapy, a practice that attempted to “cure” members of the LGBT community. And in 2018, X-Men Red took on the concept of fake news when Cassandra Nova programmed people’s minds to flood the media with mutant hate. X-Men has civil rights ingrained in its narrative. You could almost say that it’s part of the comic’s DNA.
As each generation of X-Men spoke on the conflicts of their time, one wonders if now they will address one of the most present social issues: trans rights. The comic’s current storyline revolves around the mutant nation of Krakoa, as mutants begin to be led to freedom and safety. The X-Men comic New Mutants recently introduced a trans character. Escapade premiered in a one-shot and is returning in October. It’s a huge step forward for X-Men, but it is a different situation when a live human stands behind a character. To have Elliot Page reprise his old role as Shadowcat may raise some issues in reality that the X-men can’t address in their fictional universe.
For example, when Page said he would continue to play Vanya in Umbrella Academy, the backlash from some on the internet revolved around how a trans man can’t play a character that identifies as female. There has been a huge outcry for Hollywood to assign roles to talent who can represent those roles accurately. The movement is meant to create more opportunities for unrepresented groups of people. But there seemed to be a much louder complaint surrounding this particular trans man when he played a different assigned role. The Netflix show Umbrella Academy transitioned the character from Vanya Hargreeves to Viktor Hargreeves in order to have Page play the role accurately and help avoid backlash.
Playing Kitty Pryde Now Provides a Unique Opportunity
Kitty Pryde, AKA Shadowcat, though being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in her bisexuality, is not a trans character. She identifies as a female. And that identity may restrict Page from playing the role. Some point out that Hollywood has a reputation for having cisgender actors play trans roles. And like white actors to blackface, cisgender actors have dressed as or pretended to be their opposite gender, unfortunately, often for the sake of comedy.
But now we’ve entered an era where characters designed to be of a certain race, gender, or sexuality are offered to a person who most closely mirrors that character’s identity. It’s created better opportunities for marginalized groups and made the Hollywood community more diverse overall. Movies are often made for specific actors or even highlight the struggles of particular groups of people.
If Elliot Page were to play Kitty Pryde in X-Men, would it be enough that he was representing a member of the LGBTQIA+ community by playing a bisexual female, or would Disney have Kitty transition in order to make the role a better fit for Page? Or would it even be necessary? Elliot Page has stated that he is still willing to play roles that identify as female. And while Page would not represent a female character accurately, his experience playing female roles previously and his range as an actor should allow him to play the part well. After all, he was still playing female roles while he was really a man.
Directors often design character-driven films with specific actors in mind, e.g., Brendan Fraser in The Whale. And that’s done for the same artistic reason – the actor’s identity reflects the film’s narrative. But would allowing a trans man to play a female role increase the opportunities for trans people? Or would it merely misrepresent cisgender characters? Transgender people are already poorly represented in Hollywood. And Elliot Page has a unique opportunity to add to the craft of acting itself.
He was a man while playing Kitty Pryde before. Now that he identifies as male, he is still informed about the role. He could use a genuine past experience to help him perform. If willing, he could reinvent the skill of acting and create greater opportunities for trans actors at the same time.
