It was one of the first instances of widespread fan-casting. Long before an actual X-Men movie was in production, fans were convinced that the best, perhaps only, choice for a live-action Charles Xavier, the telepathic mutant leader also known as Professor X, was Patrick Stewart. Granted, this was informed in large part by the usual fanboy literalism. “Hey, a great bald actor! Maybe he should play the great bald character!” But, you have to hand to them: They were right. Patrick Stewart should play the great bald character. There was no equaling the leading-man gravitas he brought to the genre world through seven seasons and several movies of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But Stewart, who passed away on October 28th at the age of 86, was nonetheless able to add another icon to his impressive repertoire, a Shakespearean performer always capable of classing up the joint.
That’s very much how Stewart spent most of the 2000s, after his part in the Star Trek film series was laid to rest with 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis: He alternated X-Men movies as Xavier, voice acting gigs of all stripes (whose voice had more authority?), and stage work, mostly in Shakespeare plays in London.
Of these, the X-Men movies arguably asked the last of him. His character had such strong superpowers that the original three films — X-Men, X2, and X-Men: The Last Stand — went to increasingly drastic measures to keep him out of the climactic action, with the understanding that Charles Xavier could probably, left to his own devices, end too many fights too easily. So in the first film, his massive power-amplifying Cerebro device is poisoned, putting him in the hospital; in the second, he is incapacitated and kidnapped, so that bad guys may use his powers for their own nefarious means; and in the third, he’s atomized halfway through, killed only to be brought back in a post-credits scene.
That’s dumb comic-book stuff in a movie that gives no one in its cast their due as performers. Yet as the repeated killing of Professor X went from rushed plot turn to heartbreaking development to, finally, a running gag in the Doctor Strange sequel (where he appears as an alternate-universe Charles), Stewart gave the many deaths of his character a real poignancy. When he’s seen at the end of X-Men: Days of Future Past, there couldn’t be a more efficient shorthand to telling the audience all is well with this rejiggered present day. When he rolls into Multiverse of Madness just to get killed by a rogue Scarlet Witch, he betrays no diminishment of his grand pronouncements, no hint that he’s doomed for almost a goof.
And then there’s Logan, the X-Men movie where the deaths feel genuinely painful. In a story set in the future, a disoriented Charles Xavier lives under the guardianship of Logan (Hugh Jackman), also known as Wolverine, with Xavier’s dementia augmented by dangerous seizures which apparently killed several X-Men years earlier. Seeing this character and actor whose authority rings throughout the series so vulnerable, so dependent on Logan, and so occasionally (and profanely) resentful about his limitations, brought as much grim reality into the series as Jackman’s much-loved performance. (A number of critics’ groups nominated Stewart’s supporting performance for awards, though he didn’t make the cut at the Oscars.) But there’s warmth, too, as in the sequence where Logan, his daughter, and Charles stay with a family who temporarily shelters them. “This is what life looks like,” he tells Logan. “Take a moment, and feel it.” This could sound like a familiar bromide in another voice. In Stewart’s, you hang on his every word.
When Charles Xavier dies in Logan, it’s not with momentous parting words or through heroic sacrifice; an assassin clone of Wolverine stabs him, and a few minutes later, he is gone, murmuring to the real Logan about the boat they planned to buy. Though Xavier is, by this point, well into old age and cognitive decline, it’s still the moment of Logan that actually threatens to feel like too much — a tragedy too far. That’s because of Stewart. You could kill him off onscreen several times without losing its string. It stings now, too.
Where to Stream the X-Men Movies
Though the X-Men series was produced by 20th Century Fox before Disney’s acquisition of the company, and they exist mostly out of continuity with the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Marvel made in-house, Disney now owns the rights to them as part of the Fox catalog. As such, they’re all currently streaming on the Disney+ platform (even the R-rated Logan).
Disney+ offers a number of subscription options, so you can find the one that works for you. With ads, a subscription costs $12.49/month; without ads, it’s $21.49/month or $214.99/year.
There are also Disney+ bundles with Hulu, HBO Max, and ESPN+, so you can subscribe to up to three services at once and save over 40% every month. The bundles are available in a few different configurations, starting at $12.99/month for Disney+ and Hulu with ads, and going up to $34.99/month for Disney+, Hulu, and Max ad-free.
Of the 14 movies in the series (if you count Deadpool & Wolverine), Stewart appears, in at least some capacity, in five of them (not counting the weird CG version that appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Here are the three best features for Stewart’s version of Charles Xavier, in release order:
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Photo: Everett Collection The first X-Men movie remains one of the strongest 21st century superhero movies; a lower budget and uncertain franchise future allowed the movie a tighter focus on character than these things typically get, and that extends to Stewart’s performance as Charles Xavier. The point-of-view characters are Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) as they’re introduced to the world of the mutant superheroes, but it’s Xavier who is their (and therefore our) guide in this process. He also gets to verbally tussle with his real-life pal Ian McKellen, playing Xavier’s frenemy Magneto, establishing a relationship that echoes across the entire X-Men saga.
Stream X-Men on Disney+
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©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Stewart doesn’t have the biggest role in this movie, given that it mashes together the prequel cast of X-Men: First Class, where James McAvoy plays a younger Xavier, with the less prominent (except for Wolverine of course) older players. But he still plays a crucial part in the film’s dark-future narrative, its neat denouement, and a mid-movie encounter between the younger Xavier and his older self, attempting to convince him to keep fighting. It’s hard to imagine Stewart’s upcoming reprisal of the role in Avengers: Doomsday will hit quite so well.
Stream X-Men: Days of Future Past on Disney+
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photo: Everett Collection Logan wouldn’t be the last time Stewart would get to play Professor X; the multiversal shenanigans of the MCU allowed him to return twice more. But like Hugh Jackman, he’s given a proper sendoff in this downbeat but emotionally involving future-world story about, essentially, the end of the X-Men (as well as the obligatory new beginnings). The early scenes, with Wolverine acting as cranky but dedicated caretaker for an enfeebled, sometimes enraged Charles Xavier, feature some of the best work of either actor’s movie career.
Stream Logan on Disney+
