Bryan Singer Says Mystique Is Right For A Solo Movie With Or Without Jennifer Lawrence

It’s interesting to see how the “X-Men” franchise pivoted around its stars. As Jennifer Lawrence became a bigger and bigger name, her Mystique character became a much bigger part of the X-universe and even became one of its heroes, despite being a villain in the comics. One of the biggest female stars on the planet, there was even talk of a solo, stand-alone Mystique movie. That talk died down ages ago, especially when Lawrence suggested she was done with the X-series after her three-film contract was up. And after the underperforming “X-Men: Apocalypse” — which opened 28% lower than “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” and only the 6th highest opening of the entire series — it’s pretty certain that Lawrence, who always hated the blue make-up for the film, is done with the series.

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“Fox should be terrified because the deal we made was like if one of us doesn’t come back, none of us are,” she said recently referring to Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and James McAvoy (Professor X) who are only signed on for three films as well and thus have fulfilled their contractual obligations. But even if Lawrence is done with her Mystique character, X-Men may not be done with Mystique.

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“I think [Mystique’s] right for [a standalone movie], whether it’s Jennifer [Lawrence] or not,” X-Men series director Bryan Singer recently told the The Empire Film Podcast. “Xavier can get into Cerebro and look at the world, but he’d rather just teach classes and see the beauty of mutants and humans co-existing in his mansion in Westchester. Along comes Raven with a reality check on the state of the world. It opens up a lot of avenues.”

So if Jennifer Lawrence is done, will they recast Mystique for the next film and/or jump into a solo film? Likely not. If they recast, they’d likely need to find another bankable female star who could lead their own movie, and considering Lawrence is probably the only actress under 30 who can pull that off, Fox would likely need to groom a new star to reach that level with a few more films.

Or like Marvel has suggested for a while, they’ll let “Iron Man” lay dormant for several years and focus on many other characters before they reboot the character if Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t re-up after the next two ‘Infinity Wars‘ films. It’s a nice thought, Mystique solo films, but without Jennifer Lawrence, I wouldn’t hold my breath for now.  Singer has also pitched a female Wolverine movie to Fox, but that character would likely need to joint the X-Men films before it was ready to stand alone.

Moreover, with ‘Apocalypse’ not hitting its projected numbers — and looking like it will fall considerably short of ‘Days Of Future Past,’ maybe not even hitting $500 million worldwide, Fox is likely going to reexamine the franchise and perhaps pivot to the far more successful “Deadpool” side of the X-universe until they can formulate a new plan for super-hero-sized success.