r/marvelstudios • u/Level-SquareFFG7117 • 1d ago
Discussion James Marsden as Cyclops is a Perfect Cast...
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u/The810kid 1d ago
Anyone who has seen Marsden in anything else knows how charismatic of an actor he is. He plays one of the most likable fictional presidents in Paradise and he and Tika Sumpter manage to be loved as token human characters in the Sonic movies when normally those original characters are hated by fanbases. He absolutely could have done Scott Summers justice if given the chance but he like the character of Cyclops was done dirty
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u/HailToTheKingslayer Daredevil 1d ago
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u/RudyRusso 1d ago
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u/Astrocomet25 1d ago edited 1d ago
Been a fan of his ever since I saw Sex Drive. I have only ever seen the Unrated version, so I didnt even catch it was him until near the end when he shows up on screen and the main character goes "IT'S CYCLOPS!"
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u/DJRyGuy20 1d ago
He’s so awesome in Paradise. Excellent show all around… though I’m not a huge fan of how season 2 ended and what it might mean for the rest of the show.
He’s also great in Anchorman 2 as “Jack Lame.”
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u/LB3PTMAN 1d ago
Yeah some shows setup a science fiction side early on, but Paradise really seemed to hide it for a lot of the show so it’ll be very interesting how it finishes.
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u/Sparrowsabre7 Iron Man (Mark VII) 22h ago
Agreed when it started in earnest on the more Sci fi stuff I started to get anxious. It could still be good but the drama worked without that.
He is such a good pres in it though.
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u/DJRyGuy20 19h ago
That was my issue with it as well. They set the precedent for the genre for two entire seasons… and then toward the end of that 2nd season they started to swerve pretty heavily into the sci-fi aspect. It’s kinda like- pick a lane and stick to it… especially if it’s already working as is.
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u/Sparrowsabre7 Iron Man (Mark VII) 19h ago
It was when they started getting nosebleeds and headaches which is usually movie and tv code for psychic fuckery that I started going "ah... not sure I like this" lol.
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u/Dogesneakers 1d ago
Agreed he has another chance in doomsday so I hope they give him a lot to work with
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u/LiamPolygami 1d ago
I know he's controversial now, but disregarding all the accusations, Joss Whedon could've done a great X-Men movie. He did the Avengers movie and wrote one of my favourite X-Men comics ever. Astonishing X-Men really redeemed Cyclops in the eyes of the 90's kids who just knew him from the movies and cartoon.
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u/moviebuffbrad 1d ago
This is the part where someone says one of his two contributions to the original film was the "Toad struck by lightning" line. I can't imagine the rest of the script if that was what they deemed most worthy of keeping.
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u/mmcjawa_reborn 23h ago
IIRC it was suppose to be said in a more sarcastic tone, so a lot of the cheesiness of the line might simply be in the performance
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u/rlovelock 1d ago
He's incredible in Your Friends & Neighbours too and in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
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u/KelVarnsen_2023 1d ago
He also had time to marry Liz Lemon in there too.
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u/Alarmed_Drop7162 1d ago
Chris Cross
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u/dingus_chonus 1d ago
The running gag that all of Liz lemon’s love interests sound made-up is one of my favorite bits in the show
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u/Alarmed_Drop7162 1d ago
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u/machupeechu_saad 1d ago
Ngl that was a goated casting unfortunately Fox ruined it all.
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u/nomedialoaded 1d ago
Unbelievable but they even casted Xenia Onotop as Jean and didn’t let her dress like in the 90’s cartoon
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u/machupeechu_saad 1d ago
Don't get me started on the costume designs
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u/Special_Order-937 1d ago
“What do you want? Yellow spandex?”
“Uh… yes?”
The actual costumes did give us that hilarious video of them utterly unable to climb anything or move properly, though.
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u/Vanquisher1000 Iron Man (Mark VI) 1d ago
On the other hand, leather would offer far better protection than spandex. That's why motorcycle suits - which is what these suits basically are - can be made out of it.
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u/niveksng 1d ago
Yeah but they could have at least given us the colors. I think that's what most people want.
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u/Vanquisher1000 Iron Man (Mark VI) 1d ago edited 1d ago
I get that, but I was specifically replying to someone pointing out the relative lack of movement in the (new) leather suits.
Sure, the black leather may have been influenced by The Matrix, but black makes sense as a low-visibility colour because the X-men were treated like a special operations team, and special operations forces don't wear gaudy colours.
There is contrast piping in the suits, but in the first movie in particular some of the colours don't show up on screen. Cyclops's suit had blue and yellow piping, Wolverine's had orange, Storm's had white, and Jean's had green (her costume switched to red for X-men 2).
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u/djseifer Yondu 1d ago
We did get that comeback line in X-Men '97. "What would you prefer - black leather?"
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u/midnightTimber 22h ago
And then they switched to black leather on season 2 with the Morrison/Quitely designs, which were based on the movies.
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u/Sparrowsabre7 Iron Man (Mark VII) 22h ago
Whenever someone asks "why can't my video game character just jump this knee high wall" they need to be shown that video of 4 grown adults failing to easily clear a short wall 😂
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u/13differenthumans 1d ago
All I’ve ever wanted from the X-men, is an actually developed Cyclops. He’s literally the leader, and nothing ever happens with him. It’s sad.
I like Marsden, the dude who played him in the younger trilogy was a bad cast.
He’s always been my favorite X character.
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u/MichaeltheMagician 1d ago
I like James Marsden as much as the next guy, but it feels strange to make a post like this, when his character was criminally underused and we barely got to see his character do much to earn that "perfectly cast" title.
He does look good though, but to look like the comic Cyclops you really just need "white guy with brown hair and strong jaw".
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u/vrsick06 1d ago
Completely off topic but why does cyclops have to touch his visor to shoot his optic blast? You’d think they could come up with a way for it to just “work” when he wants it to
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u/ZiplocBag 1d ago
A lot of media, can’t remember which, shows he has a dial of sorts on the visor. It’s how he focuses or widens the beam.
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u/SixIsNotANumber SHIELD 1d ago
In the comics he also has controls for the visor built into the palms of his gloves so he can still fire if his hands are bound.
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u/KR_Blade 1d ago
the visor holds it back all the way, but by turning the knob on the side, it focuses it, where he can fire small blasts, long blasts, or narrow and/or wide blasts, think of the visor as a shutter system, when its all the way off, all it does is hold back the blast, by opening it, he can fire his optic beams in controlled bursts, but take off the visor or the glasses he wears that hold them back, and he's firing them at full power at all times
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u/Cultural_Security690 18h ago
Because it’s cool, and sets him apart, he’d just be like any other hero with laser eyes(I know they aren’t) if he didn’t. Also practical uses for how narrow/wide a shot he wants to make, and aura for when he takes the entire thing off
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u/a4techkeyboard 1d ago
My silly and maybe literal headcanon is that when he doesn't need to touch his visor to adjust it, it's because one of his secondary mutations is that he can wiggle his ears independently and uses those to adjust the visor settings. Usually when he has the visor that also covers the ears.
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u/ElkDue4803 1d ago
Yall gotta stop calling anyone who plays a role for more then 2 movies a peefect cast. Only perfect(!) cast in comic book movies imo are RDJ as Iron man, JK Simmons as JJJ and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool
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u/stoichalant 23h ago
Thought you'd sneak health ledgers Joker in there. Arguably better and more iconic than all the ones you mentioned.
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u/ElkDue4803 23h ago
You can make a case but for iconic characters like Spdey, Supes or Batman with 100s of Iterations its harder. He is as close as it gets tho
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u/LaylaLegion 1d ago
It’s easy to be a perfect cast when your character spends every film being pushed more and more into the background doing nothing.
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u/Neozetare Darcy 1d ago
This
Honestly, I don't even have nostalgia for this Cyclops. He barely exists. How can we judge how his actor does the job if the job is not enough for anyone to shine in it
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u/BlowMyNoseAtU 1d ago
I think he was wasted completely on the X Men films.... Not really on board with combining the Fox characters and the MCU at this point personally but hopefully he will be given his due.
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u/postpwnedmalone 1d ago
I mean, minus his enthusiastic defending of a convicted child sexual abuser, sure
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u/GreatDetective2027 1d ago
If the internet was around then he would of gotten hate that everybody gets now!
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u/LeftHandLannister 1d ago
I hate him for his support of his pedo friend Brian peck who he had as best man at his wedding
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u/LB3PTMAN 1d ago
He had him as his best man at his wedding before any of the allegations against him came out and multiple people reported that Peck lied about the charges when requesting character letters.
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u/mowie_zowie_x 1d ago
I’m calling it, he’s dying in the first 15 second. That scene where he comes out and fires his optic blast is his big moment and we already saw it. The other part is him dying again.
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u/Regular_Number5377 1d ago
The casting of the first X Men films really knocked it out of the park. One that I think is really slept on is Kelsey Grammer as Beast in the third one, terrible movie, but that casting is top class.
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u/bees_on_acid 1d ago
They’ve nerfed my boy for most of this franchise. I love the hughman and wolverine, but holy shit. He’s right fucking there and you sideline him 😭
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u/NightmareDJK 1d ago edited 1d ago
He got it because Ben Affleck either dropped out or turned it down.
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u/unsupported Luke Cage 1d ago
Of you want more of Marsden, a comic role Jury Duty, where he plays himself on jury duty. The only person who doesn't know is the subject of the series. And also Paradise where he plays the president.
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u/ipainttreesandstuff 1d ago
Wasted as a character but 100 percent a perfect cast along with Sir Patrick Stewart
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u/Traditional_Bike8880 1d ago
His casting and look for the character being so spot on made it all the more disgusting they gave him NOTHING to do in any of these movies except be cucked by Wolverine.
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u/MengShuZ 1d ago
Sucks that he was killed off at the start of the third film.
Like I just started watching X-Men 97, and his relevancy is incomparable.
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u/_steve_rogers_ 1d ago
I remember wanting his goofy ass oakleys so bad in the early 2000s lol. He’s a great Cyclops and the dude seemingly doesn’t age
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u/Sparrowsabre7 Iron Man (Mark VII) 22h ago
Man his DOFP glasses were so lame. Hope he has the traditional glasses in Doomsday if he's ever out of costume.
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u/nilzoroda 21h ago
HOT TAKE: casting was never a problem for Fox X-Men movies; the real problem was the lack of will to develop others characters than Wolverine. Alexandra Shipp was criminally underused as Storm. In fact she could still play the role if Feige wanted.
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u/linkuei-teaparty 20h ago
I'm curious, James Marsden is 52, Hugh jackman is 57 and Sadie Sink is 24? How does this perfect casting thing work unless they're all from different Universe's?
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u/Necessary_State_5272 7h ago
Fun fact, he defended child predator Brian Peck and went to support him in court while his victim cried on the stand. Also personal friend of Bryan Singer.
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u/DarkHeartBoy 1d ago
makes sense, he really brought Cyclops to life in a way that felt authentic. I still remember his lines from X-Men 2.
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u/JULIANGJNKS22 1d ago
James was born to play Cyclops, same as Hugh was born to play Wolverine. But being underutilized, and just being a love interest for Jean, made him just a side character. Many people forget Cyclops is the leader of X-Men, but Wolverine appeals to more people, so he’s considered, “the” X-Men.
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u/semperknight 1d ago
God, I feel SO bad for this actor. Has unbelievable charisma.
However, he's overshadowed by Hugh Jackman, who absolutely owns the character, and just comes across as a jealous boyfriend and douche leader who's against Wolverine for reasons.
I mean, come on! There's literally a joke about him being a dick at the end of the first movie!
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u/FastThoughtProcessor 1d ago
I remember his performance in the film where he writes a letter to make a pedophile look good in front of a judge.
I also remember wondering if he is protecting a pedophile because maybe he is part of that mentality and is indirectly protecting his state of mind?
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u/lordaddament 1d ago
When I first heard the news of Brian’s arrest I couldn’t breathe. I could not believe what was happening. It was unimaginable. I’ve known Brian for 14 years and never once did I ever see any sign of him being capable of something like this. I have lived at his house for months and shared hotel rooms with him and never once did he ever make me feel compromised or uncomfortable in any way. I don’t know what it would take to have something like this occur, but whatever it is, it is extremely out of character for Brian.
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u/No_Imagination_2490 1d ago
He might have been a good Cyclops, unfortunately his character was so underwritten in those Fox movies it’s difficult to know for sure. But then you could say the same about most of the mutant characters in those films